專四晨讀美文：We Are on a Journey

We Are on a Journey
Wherever you are,
and whoever you maybe,
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 a movement,
a tendency, a steady,
ceaseless progress towards an unseen goal.
We are gaining something,
or losing something, everyday.
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 other;
for since your ship was first launched
upon the sea of life,
you have never been still
for a single moment;
the sea is too deep,
you could not find an anchorage if you would;
there can be no pause
until you come into port.