Wherever you may be and whatever you are doing— If you are bathed in sunshine or wrapped in snow— take a few moments to enjoy and reflect on Helen Keller's wise words:
"It is beyond a doubt that everyone should have time for some special delight, if only five minutes each day to seek out a lovely flower or cloud or a star, or learn a verse or brighten another’s dull task. What is the use of such terrible diligence as many tire themselves out with, if they always postpone their exchange of smiles with Beauty and Joy to cling to irksome duties and relations? Unless they admit these fair, fresh, and eternal presences into their lives as they can, they must needs shut themselves out of heaven, and a gray dust settles on all existence. That the sky is brighter than the earth means little unless the earth itself is appreciated and enjoyed. Its beauty loved gives the right to aspire to the radiance of the sunrise and the stars."
Excerpted from The Open Door, 1957
Copyright © American Foundation for the Blind, Helen Keller Archives
Image: Helen Keller standing outdoors wearing a wide brimmed hat with flower decorations, circa 1920s
