FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 131 



MAKING THE MOST OF ONE'S SELF AT HOME. 



BY MISS JENNIE BUELL, ANN ARBOR. 



*'We all have within us continents of undiscovered character. Happy 

 is he who plays the part of Columbus to his own soul." In this neat 

 way has some one summarized the complex nature of a human life and 

 at the same time suggested its undeveloped possibilities. To each indi- 

 vidual is set the problem of making the most of his or her life, but it 

 sometimes seems as if to the woman in the farm home life is set the 

 most difficult and intricate of all these problems. It is the most delicate 

 because the most vital and complicated, touching the issues of life at 

 their very springs and in the most personal of ways. ''With nations as 

 with men," says President Roosevelt, "the most important things are 

 of the household." And woman in the home is there supervising these 

 "important things of the household." While the most responsible of 

 all positions, it is also in closer intimacy with fewer people, restraints 

 are removed and a consequent greater strain upon nerves and muscles 

 results. She realizes that the changes in the generations of her fore- 

 mothers have wrought grave changes in the attitude slie is expected to 

 bear toward the outside world. Her scope of influence may not be en- 

 larged, but the field in which she must exercise it is certainly broadened. 

 From being looked upon as only the physical mother of the race, she is 

 now consulted and looked to as the social and philanthropic "other- 

 mother" of every endeavor for better living in the home and without. 

 Mistress of a thousand trades she needs to be, with wisdom and sympathy 

 to fit her for a world's counselor. 



Facing all the demands of her problem, and realizing its import, what 

 then? She must resolve to build upon conditions as she finds them in 

 her own home and within her own self. The lily cannot be blossomed in 

 mid-air without its stem to draw sustenance from the earth. Neither 

 can tangible results be secured in day-dreams without solid foundation 

 to rest them upon. She must recognize her own identity and resolve 

 that it shall be preserved. Too long was self-abnegation looked upon as 

 the whole duty of woman. She knows now that she helps those dearer 

 to her than life best by first helping herself to the best within her reach. 

 If she neglects this, she may discover it in the most pitiful of ex- 

 periences for a mother, — feeling her children do not expect her to be 

 interested in their studies nor informed on the topics of the day that lie 

 outside her own little round of work. She sees, too late perhaps, that 

 in her love for her family she has quieted her judgment and laid down 

 her rightful opinions in a willing but mistaken sacrifice. Besides, also, 

 it is not difficult "for love's sweet sake" to drift into a sort of unselfish- 

 ness that in reality is unsuspected mental lethargy. 



Let her but once determine that her reason shall rule her affection, 

 and power is born of the union. Obstacles fall before it, one scarce 

 knows how. More and more system controls one's every-day routine; 

 the unessential distinguished from the essential and little by little dis- 

 carded. She fits her work-rooms and surroundings to the convenience 

 and comfort of her body, recognizing that her body is to serve her best 



