Give Thanks for Small Things for it is a Sign of Larger Things to Come – Florence Scovel-Shinn
The student must remember also, not to despise the “day of small things.”
Invariably, before a demonstration, come “signs of land.”
Before Columbus reached America, he saw birds and twigs which showed him land was near. So it is with a demonstration; but often the student mistakes it for the demonstration itself, and is disappointed.
A woman had “spoken the word” for a set of dishes. Not long afterwards a friend gave her a dish which was old and cracked.
She came to me and said, “Well, I asked for a set of dishes, and all I got was a cracked plate.”
I replied, “The plate was only signs of land. It shows your dishes are coming—look upon it as birds and seaweed,” and not long afterwards the dishes came.
