Smile, Madam

Do you know what a smile is, madam? ... It is that laughing dawn after that scowling night... it is the chirping of the sparrow after that sealed stillness... it is those golden threads in a dark sky heavy and dull with clouds. So smile, and let all those around you feel this radiant dawn and this laughing hope.

Smile in the morning at yourself before your mirror, and you will feel happy all your day long... Smile as you go about your household tasks — for how many people are unable to make any movement or do any work at all... Smile as you attend to your children and their problems — for how many, many women would sacrifice all their material and social happiness for the smile and the chirping of an infant to care for!

Smile as you meet your husband returning from his work; that smile will make him forget his troubles and his weariness, and will let him feel as the traveler on a stormy sea feels when he has reached the safe shore and the warm hope...

Smile in the face of life's problems. Frowning only makes them more tangled, while a smile filled with courage and hope removes them, as the rising sun removes poisons and diseases...

Teach your children to smile in the face of their worries and their problems... Teach your son that life is a smile, and woe to whoever loses this treasure — for in losing it he has lost all happiness, hope, and success... Teach him to smile... For how much misery and disappointment has befallen man because he did not know how to smile when troubles piled upon him...

Teach your daughter to smile... Let her be in life like the shading tree in whose shade they take shelter in the hour of weariness... and like the shining sun from which they draw their light and their vitality... Let her be like the towering rock before which the worries and toils of those around her break and fall back... Let her be like the mighty oak that scoffs at the storms of life and the turns of fortune, and meets them with a smile and with head held high...

So smile, madam... smile when you feel weariness and misery and pains... The light of your smile erases the darkness of your worries and makes the spirit of hope shine within you... For life is but 'a tear and a smile,' and happy is the one granted to shade that tear with a smile brimming with faith and hope...