A thought, a material improvement, a harmony, a unique nuance of human love,
the enchanting complexity of a smile or a glance, all these new beauties that appear
for the first time, in me or around me, on the human face of the earth—
the spiritual success of the universe is bound up with the release of every possible energy in it.
Our smallest tasks contribute infinitesimally, at least indirectly, to the building of something definitive.
That, ultimately, is the meaning and value of our acts.
Any increase that I can bring upon myself or upon things is translated into some increase
in my power to love and some progress in God’s blessed hold on the universe.
With every creative thought or action, a little more health is being spread in the human mass,
and in consequence, a little more liberty to act, to think, and to love.
We serve to complete the work of creation, even by the humblest work of our hands.
Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu