hourglass

this quote has gotten me through the toughest of times:

"most of us think of ourselves as standing wearily and helplessly at the center of a circle bristling with tasks, burdens, problems, annoyances, and responsibilities which are rushing in upon us. at every moment we have a dozen different things to do, a dozen problems to solve, a dozen strains to endure. we see ourselves as over driven, overburdened, overtired. this is a common mental picture and it is totally false. no one of us, however crowded his life, has such an existence. what is the true picture of your life? imagine that there is an hour glass on your desk. connecting the bowl at the top with the bowl at the bottom is a tube so thin that only one grain of sand can pass through it at a time. that is the true picture of your life, even on a super busy day. the crowded hours come to you always one moment at a time. that is the only way they can come. the day may bring many tasks, many problems, strains, but invariably they come in single file. you want to gain emotional poise? remember the hourglass, the grains of sand dropping one by one."
-James Gordon Gilkey