Climbing the Ladder of Life to Greater Things

<p>Listen to episode 601 of the Inspirational Living Podcast: Climbing the Ladder of Life to Greater Things. Edited and adapted from As Natural as Life by Charles Gordon Ames.</p><p>Visit our sponsor Green Chef to learn why they are the #1 meal kit for eating well. Go to <a href="https://greenchef.com/inspirational100" rel="nofollow">GreenChef.com/inspirational100</a> and use the code INSPIRATIONAL100 to get $100 off, including free shipping.</p><p><em>-----------</em></p><p>For today&#39;s podcast, I am including the entire transcript. If you would like to get full transcripts to all of our podcasts, you can do so by becoming our patron for as little as $3 a month. Learn more at: <a href="https://livinghour.org/patron" rel="nofollow">https://livinghour.org/patron</a></p><p><strong>Podcast Transcript</strong>: Welcome to the Inspirational Living podcast. Today’s reading was edited and adapted from As Natural as Life by Charles Gordon Ames, published in 1895.</p><p>The years of a tree&#39;s life can be counted by the rings in its woody trunk. And, by looking at how these annual growths differ in thickness, we can tell or guess what years were friendly or backward, warm or cold, wet or dry. Thus the tree writes in itself the history of its life and the record of all passing seasons.</p><p>To an eye that sees all things as they are, each person’s inner being must contain the stored-up results of all their choices and conduct, and all the forces and principles that have affected their mind and heart. We number our days as the tree its years. They make of us what we are and what we are to be. Indeed, what we call our character is simply the sum of inward effects produced by thought, feeling, and action.</p><p>Worldly matters do not stand with any of us as they did a year ago. Our life has grown richer or poorer, deeper or shallower. We are better or worse (more under the rule of the truth and the right) or less so. The divine voice that calls us upward sounds nearer and clearer, or farther off and fainter, according t