"Up" and "Down" Eggs - January 1, 1953

January 1, 1953 - "Just Thoughts of a Plain Country Woman" column publised in The Collinsville News. 

You can imagine my surprise when I read the following column written by my grandmother in 1953 (over 60 years ago) when I was about 2 ½ years old - what an attitude!    

“Kathleen, my small granddaughter, says she gets to pick the “up” eggs.  When she saw I was puzzled by “up and down” eggs she explained that, since she could not reach the high nests, she would gather the ones in the lower nests,  while we picked the others.

How wise and happy she is without even realizing it!  How few of us are willing to do the “down” work-- willingly?  How resentful are we of those who have the “up” nests as though the higher nests or eggs were any better than those lower down. 

And thereby is today’s thought.

 What is the only difference between “high” and “low”?  Physical stature in Kathleen’s case;  mental and spiritual capacity and all our cases.  It is up to us whether we think “high” or “low” and whether we are willing to do our part. . . . . .

. . . .First, let us be self reliant enough to reach up, to look up, and yet at the same time, feel responsibility where we are at our own place, with our own talents and our own growth at our present level.  Kathleen is – even at her level.  She is thrifty, too, holding all the eggs she gathers securely in both hands and placing them carefully in the bucket so as not to break any.  She has the courage to try, the individual eagerness to beg to go along and help; and the supreme faith that while she is doing a perfect job now,  someday she will be a “big girl” who can reach into the very “top” nests, do her part, and receive even greater responsibility and reward.

When we finish,  she insists on helping to carry the heavy bucket of eggs to the house—she insists carrying her part of the load.

And, so I ask you today:  "Are you willing to carry your part of the load?"