An eastern legend tells of a wonderful vase–known as the vase of life–which was full of a mysterious liquid. No one could tell what this liquid was. No chemist could analyze it or tell what entered into its composition. The marvelous thing about it was that whatever one dropped into it would overflow and run down the sides of the vase. That is, the original liquid would not run over, but the thing which was dropped into it would overflow in kind and in amount. The depositor would always get out of this magic vase exactly what he put into it.
Life is just such a magic vase. It will run over to you only that which you drop into it–nothing more, nothing less, nothing different. If we drop in love, generosity, tolerance, magnanimity, kindness, helpfulness, unselfishness–the life vase will run over to us the same things, in the same amount and quality. If on the other hand, we put in hate, jealousy, envy, cruelty, selfishness, grasping greed, malicious gossip about our neighbors–it will run over with all these black devils to torment us and rob us of happiness and success.
Every minute of every day we are dropping something into our magic vase, and our present and future welfare depends upon what this is. You alone control its overflow. You can drop into it everything you please, and as surely as the earth yields to the farmer a harvest like the seed he sowed, your life will yield to you an overflow like the thing you put into it.
If, after years of toil and hard, persistent effort, you find your hands empty, your life meager, unfruitful, it is because of your empty, negative thought, your poverty thought, your limited, restricted ideas, the fear thoughts, the discouraged thoughts that you have put into your life vase. These have negatived your mind, lessened your ability and killed your creative power.
Are you dissatisfied with your life, disappointed with your measure of happiness and success? Then your thought must be at fault. You cannot expect an overflow of happiness and success when you have dropped into your vase only failure, distressing thoughts, poverty thoughts, unhappy, miserable, pessimistic thoughts of all sorts.
One thing is certain. If you are miserable and disappointed, if you feel soured toward the world, you are getting the overflow from your past.
If you want to get the best out of life this year, you must put the best you have into it. If you have been dropping all sorts of hideous things into your life vase during the last year, stop it, drop in this year only the things you want, the things your heart longs for, the things which will make your life bright, beautiful, successful, happy.
– Orison Swett Marden, The Chicago Daily News, Chicago, IL., February 21, 1919
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