Vivien, Thank you so much for sharing this thought-provoking excerpt! All the more reason, then, for us to be intentional about planting seeds and doing so in abundance!

EFFECT OF THOUGHT ON CIRCUMSTANCES

MAN’S mind may be likened to a garden, which may be intelligently cultivated or allowed to run wild; but whether cultivated or neglected, it must, and will, bring forth. If no useful seeds are put into it, then an abundance of useless weed-seeds will fall therein, and will continue to produce their kind.

Just as a gardener cultivates his plot, keeping it free from weeds, and growing the flowers and fruits which he requires, so may a man tend the garden of his mind, weeding out all the wrong, useless, and impure thoughts, and cultivating toward perfection the flowers and fruits of right, useful, and pure thoughts. By pursuing this process, a man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. He also reveals, within himself, the laws of thought, and understands, with ever-increasing accuracy, how the thought-forces and mind elements operate in the shaping of his character, circumstances, and destiny.

Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:—
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass.

Entire book here on Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4507/4507-h/4507-h.htm

Raven, Thank you for sharing your experience! A love of reading is the best seed of all to plant! I agree wholeheartedly that boys will take to reading just as girls do, provided that you offer well chosen books, and make allowances in the read aloud stage for their extra wiggliness and tendency to fall asleep (even during exciting parts of the story) after a busy day. Can you believe that there were some chapters in My Father’s Dragon that I had to read three times to my 7 yo son before we made it all the way to the end?