【今日美文】人在旅途 | We Are on A Journey

We Are on a Journey

By Henry Van Dyke

Wherever you are , and whoever you may be , there is one thing in which you and I are just alike , at this moment , and in all the moments of our existence . We are not at rest ; we are on a journey . Our life is not a mere fact ; it is a movement , a tendency , a steady , ceaseless progress towards an unseen goal .

We are gaining something , or losing something , every day . Even when our position and our character seem to remain precisely the same , they are changing . For the mere advance of time is a change . It is not the same thing to have a bare field in January and in July . The season makes the difference . The limitations that are childlike in the child are childish in the man . Everything that we do is a step in one direction or another . Even the failure to do something is in itself a deed . It sets us forward or backward . The action of the negative pole of a magnetic needle is just as real as the action of the positive pole . To decline is to accept — the other alternative .

Are you nearer to your port today than you were yesterday ? Yes , — you must be a little nearer to some port or