Many a man waits long for opportunities, wondering why they
never come to him, when really they have been passing by him day after
day, unrecognized and unaccepted.
There is a legend of an artist, who long sought for a piece of
sandal-wood out of which to carve a Madonna. At last he was about to
give up in despair, leaving the vision of his life unrealized, when in
a dream he was bidden to shape the figure from a block of oak-wood,
which was destined for the fire. Obeying the command, he produced from
the log of common firewood a masterpiece.
In like manner many people wait for great and brilliant opportunities
for doing the good things, the beautiful things, of which they dream,
while through all the plain, common days, the very opportunities they
require for such deeds lie close to them, in the simplest and most
familiar passing events, and in the homeliest circumstances. They wait
to find sandal-wood out of which to carve Madonnas, while far more
lovely Madonnas than they dream of, are hidden in the common logs of
oak they burn in their open fire-place, or spurn with their feet in the
wood-yard.
Opportunities come to all. The days of every life are full of them.
But the trouble with too many of us is that we do not make anything out
of them while we have them. Then next moment they are gone. One man
goes through life sighing for opportunities.
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