it of resting normally helps us to work normally.

A wise old lady said: "My dear, you cannot exaggerate the unimportance
of things." She expressed even more, perhaps, than she knew.

It is our habit of exaggerating the importance of things that keeps us
hurried and rushed. It is our habit of exaggerating the importance of
ourselves that makes us hold the strain of life so intensely. If we
would be content to do one thing at a time, and concentrate on that one
thing until it came time to do the next thing, it would astonish us to
see how much we should accomplish. A healthy concentration is at the
root of working restfully and of resting restfully, for a healthy
concentration means dropping everything that interferes.

I know there are women who read this article who will say; "Oh, yes,
that is all very well for some women, but it does not apply in the
least to a woman who has my responsibilities, or to a woman who has to
work as I have to work."

My answer to that is: "Dear lady, you are the very one to whom it does
apply!"

The more work we have to do, the harder our lives are, the more we need
the best possible principles to lighten our work and to enlighten our
lives. We are here in the world at school and we do not want to stay in
the primary classes.

The harder our lives are and the more we are handicapped the more truly
we can learn to make every limitation an opportunity--and if we
persistently do that through circumstances, no matter how severe, the
nearer we are to getting our diploma. To gain our freedom from the
rushed feeling, to find a quiet mind in place of an unquiet one, is
worth working hard for through any number of difficulties. And think of
the benefit such a quiet mind could be to other people! Especially if
the quiet mind were the mind of a woman, for, at the present day, think
what a contrast she would be to other women!

When a woman's mind is turbulent it is the worst kind of turbulence.
When it is quiet we can almost say it is the best kind of quiet,
humanly speaking.

CHAPTER IV

_Why does Mrs. Smith get on My Nerves?_

IF you want to know the true answer to this question it is "because you
are unwilling that Mrs. Smith should be herself." You want her to be
just like you, or, if not just like you, you want her to be just as you
would best like her.

I have seen a woman so annoyed that she could not eat her supper
because another woman ate sugar on baked beans. When thi