Tolstoy - A Calendar of Wisdom

"When you hear people speak about the viciousness of other people, do not share in pleasure by discussing these issues. When you hear about the virtues of other people, remember them and tell them to others." (From A Calendar of Wisdom – Tolstoy)

Yes, I finished The Poet of Tolstoy Park. Henry lived 26 years beyond the Doctor’s prediction and he touched many lives in that time, in fact over 1300 people signed his guest book at his house.

One of the five books that Henry took from Idaho to Alabama was A Calendar of Wisdom. It took Tolstoy 15 years to gather the material for the book. In Henry’s case there was no english edition so he read it in the original Russian. The book sounded fascinating to me.

Yesterday, I found a copy at the local Borders and spent almost my last dollar to get it. It has been an exciting read. There is so much wisdom gathered in its pages that I even got up this morning at 5:15 am to read from it. It has only been translated into English during the last decade and for many years it was banned in Russia because of its religious nature.

It has made me more aware of how every moment is important. Every contact is a possibility to help someone. Every hour is to be used. And it also showed me how much time we spend in frivilous pursuit, or intellectual poison as Tolstoy called it.

So today, may we all take a moment of silence to think of others, to pray for a healing spirit, and look for the good in others.

By the way, do you have any really good quotes you carry in your life? Perhaps my favorite of all time is from Jim Elliot, a missionary to South America, who said, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."

Selah