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slash New Direction Today to get 10% off your first month. Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast.

Today's reading was edited and adapted from Byways of Blessedness by James Allen, published in 1904. Life is full of beginnings. They are presented every day

and every hour to every person. Most beginnings are small and appear trivial and insignificant, but in reality they are the

most important things in life.

See how in nature everything proceeds from small beginnings.

The mightiest river is at first a rivulet over which the grasshopper could leap.

The great flood commences with a few drops of rain.

The sturdy oak which has endured the storms of a thousand winters was once an acorn,

and the smoldering match carelessly dropped may be the means of devastating a whole town by fire.

Have you yet discovered the vast importance of beginnings?

Do you really know what is involved in a beginning?

Do you know the number of beginnings you are continuously making and realize their full

importance? If not, come with me for a short time,

and thoughtfully explore this much ignored pathway to success and a life well lived.

A beginning is a cause, and as such it must be followed by an effect, or a train of effects, and the effect will always be of

the same nature as the cause. The nature of an initial impulse will always determine

...