1) Step by step one goes very far. - Proverb of unknown origin
2) The first step is the hardest. - Marie de Vichy-Chamrond
3) What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. - C.S. Lewis
4) A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. - Confucius or Lao Tzu, depending on who you ask
5) The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps - we must step up the stairs. - Vance Havner
6) The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Does there seem to be a common theme here? In high school I was assigned to write a one-page paper on the quote by Marie de Vichy-Chamrond. I don't recall much, but I do remember being extremely proud of my closing line. It was the hook behind the jabs, if you will. More or less, the line was this -"It is not the thousands of steps which tire the legs that are most difficult, but the very first, which taxes the mind and soul." I know, right? I was proud of it. Unfortunately, at the time it was simply a closing line. I didn't understand it. I understood the concept enough to put pen to paper, but the actual truth did not strike me. Now, however, the importance of that first step is all too clear. Without that first step there is no second step, or third, or fourth. There are no steps without the first. I don't believe any of these quotations are referring to literal steps. They are choices, decisions, actions. And you see, once we decide on that first step, the others are sure to follow. No one takes a step north then a step south, then north, then south..... North or south. Those are the options. In our lives, there are certain times when we are faced with decisons and we must take a first step. I fear these first steps more than I fear most things in life. Not only my first steps, but the steps of those around me. These first steps determine the future. Determine joy. Determine pain. Determine life. There is no message to this post. No hook behind the jabs. I just needed this out there.
