August 02, 2021
by Mary Clifford Morrell
My grandson is digging a hole in the backyard. Not really earthshaking for a 10-year-old, but he’s been digging it for three years.
At some point, as one small shovel full of dirt after another was removed, the idea of the hole became an idea of a bunker and he was determined to follow through with his plan. Today, three children his age can stand in the hole chest deep and he’s tried to enlist his Pop to help him shore up the sides for safety.
Recently, as we sat at the kitchen table together, trying to unravel the mystery of fractions, he digressed at the sight of looming dark clouds and said, “I hope the storm doesn’t fill up my hole.”
I asked him why it was such a concern for him, as it was only a hole in the ground. He seemed genuinely surprised I would have to ask such a question. “You know it took me three years to dig!”
I smiled, not just at his enthusiasm for his project, but because I realized I now had a built-in “parable,” with him at the center of the story, to remind him of the importance and value of moving forward, taking one small step at a time.
Whether it’s learning fractions, mastering a musical instrument or sport, learning to draw or paint, or even to read, the idea that it can, and will, happen one small step at a time can go a long way in dispelling the discouragement children often feel when they struggle with some accomplishment.
And let’s be honest. Discouragement is an adult issue, too.
Not only do we often feel called to be the best we can be at whatever it is we are doing, it is important for us to make a difference in the world. But year after year it seems easier to become overwhelmed by the needs of the world, the community, our parishes, our poor, so much so that we never move out in faith to fill any of those needs.
But every journey begins with the first step.
As an adult still trying to figure out how I could accomplish what I wanted to in life, I found encouragement in the life and words of Dorothy Day, social activist, writer, and Catholic convert, on her way to sainthood, whose Catholic Worker Movement and “houses of hospitality” would serve the poor and hungry in some 200 communities.
Day wrote, "People say, 'What is the sense of our small effort?' They cannot see that we must lay one brick at a time, take one step at a time."
Even today, she keeps me walking forward, and building with my little bits and pieces, even on those days when I feel like, "What's the use?"
Children and adults are both empowered when we understand the ability of a single brick, a shovelful of dirt, a small offering of help to one person in need, to make a difference.
Mary Regina Morrell, mother of six and grandmother to nine, is a Catholic journalist, author, and syndicated columnist who has served the dioceses of Metuchen and Trenton, New Jersey, and RENEW International in the areas of catechesis and communication.
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