Little by Little (with a Mop)

I am feeling sleepy and tired this morning as I dragged myself to the dorm to do my chores. The mop seemed a ton heavier than usual. The will to clean is as dry as the late-summer June air enveloping me. This is one of those days when you feel the “drag”. Cleaning the whole floor area seemed like an impossible task. It would take forever.

I racked up my brains to find some inspiration to fight the dull air. I remembered that in moments where facing a great challenge seems impossible, in this case mopping the dorm floor, it takes little by little to finish the job. Heavy as it seems, I took the mop by the handle and painstakingly mopped the floor. It took forever it seems but as I went on and on, I saw how much progress I have made.

Sweat fell like torrent in the humid dorm room. Back and forth, back and forth, I went on and on and on. I began slow but as looked at how much I have done already I picked up the pace and five minutes before the bell rang, I finally did the impossible. Whew! It was a tough job to begin with, a challenge to keep on, and self-fulfilling to accomplish.

Life is just like that. There are things that seems impossible to start but we have to start doing it anyway. After all, a journey of a thousand miles begin with a simple step. Experiencing the “drag” may discourage us but keeping the will to go on will begin a positive cycle that will build on the previous step how little it might be. Sooner we will be shocked to find ourselves flying through life in swift and bounding leaps.

Maybe when we feel a little discouraged, we should pick up a mop and start cleaning.

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