What Have We Done With It?

As we look back on a year, almost always we wonder where the time has gone; almost always we wonder what we have done with it. Sometimes we may feel that we have done something really worth while, but more often we feel that we have done very little. We know that we’ve been working; we know that we’ve been moving; we know that we’re tired; we know that we’ve been busy. But so often we don’t actually feel that we have done what we should like to do⎯or even what was expected of us. Some days seem wasted; some years seem unsatisfying; and sometimes we feel frustrated. But it may give us some comfort to remember that spectacular performance isn’t expected of us⎯only consistent performance. If we have moved along about as well as we could, if we have done our share of the work that there is to be done, if we have kept a family together, if we have kept a home going, if we have kept other people gainfully employed or if we have turned in an honest day ourselves, if we have been mindful of other men and of our obligations, we needn’t be too discouraged. Accomplishment consists of many things besides the tangibles that we accumulate, of many things besides the specific things we can catalogue. Actually some of the seemingly personal things we do, may be much more important in the final result than things that seem much more impressive. Sometimes we are too close to our own activities to place a fair appraisal upon them. But as we find ourselves growing older and more thoughtful, there seems to grow among us a changing sense of values and a deeper discrimination between book values and real values, between publicity and performance, between seeming and being. And it becomes more apparent that such things as loyalty and service, honesty and honor, virtue and faithfulness, kindness and consideration, and family and friends can make any year worth while, even though we miss the mark in much in much that we intended.