Smile

I was going through some old papers of mine and I came across this poem I've saved for years. It's one of my favorites. Maybe some of you will also appreciate it.

It's easy enough to be pleasant
when life flows along like a song
but the man worthwhile
is the man who can smile
when everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble
and it always comes with the years
and the smile that is worth the praises of Earth
is the smile that shines through tears.

It's easy enough to be virtuous
when nothing tempts you to stray
when without or within no voice of sin
is luring your soul away
but it's only a negative virtue
until it is tried by fire
and the life that is worth the honor of Earth
is the life that resists desire.

By the cynic, the sad, the fallen
who had no strength of the strife
the world's highway is cumbered today
they make up the item of life
but the virtue that conquers passion
and sorrow that hides in a smile
it is these that are worth the homage of Earth
for we find them but once in awhile.

--Ella Wheeler Wilcox