Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not amatter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of thewill, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is thefreshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over timidity,of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This often existsin a man of 60 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old merely by anumber of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles thesoul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the springback to dust.

Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s heart the lure ofwonder, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s next and the joy ofthe game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is awireless
station: so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer,courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows ofcynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at 20,but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of optimism, thereis hope you may die young at 80.

Transforming Obstacles into Benefits

By Richard Stewart,Los Angeles, U.S.A. (Originally in English)
美国洛杉矶 理查德．史都7a686964616f31333335306333华德（原文为英文）

A group of frogs was traveling through the woods and two of themfell into a deep pit. Immediately, all the other frogs in the groupgathered around the pit and watched as the imprisoned frogs tried tojump out. The frogs on top could see that the pit was very deep and itlooked as if there was no way out, so they started yelling at the twofrogs in the pit to give up. "The pit is too deep. You're as good asdead," the chorus of frogs said. When the trapped frogs kept trying,the crowd yelled louder, "Give up. You're as good as dead." After awhile, one of the exhausted frogs took heed to what the others weresaying, and fell down and died.

But amazingly, the second frog kept jumping as hard as she coulddespite the negative remarks of those that kept yelling at her toaccept the inevitable and just die. Finally, with one valiant leap, shemade it out of the pit!

This amazing result occurred because the second frog was deaf andunable to hear what the others had been saying. She thought they hadbeen cheering her on the entire time they were yelling! What she hadmistakenly perceived as encouragement inspired her to try harder andsucceed against all odds. And that made all the difference!

With a positive mindset, and being deaf to others' opinions, thesecond frog made use of such negativity to overcome obstacles and reachher goals by using it as encouragement, instead of being influenced byothers like the first frog, who failed to develop her potential tostrive for survival. Thus, when we surmount others' criticism, ridiculeor cynical comments, we can do anything we set our minds to, just asthe second frog did. But, if we are not deaf like this frog, who couldnot be influenced by others due to a physical condition, we need the Wisdom to guide us to the proper way, so as not to be blindly guided byworldly opinion.