The Random Thoughts of Henry Holloway
It costs nothing but creates much. It enriches those who receive it without impoverishing those who give. It happens in a flash but the memory of it sometimes lasts for ever. None are so rich that they can get along without it, and none are so poor but are richer for its benefits. It is rest to the weary, daylight to the discouraged, sunshine to the sad and nature’s best antidote to trouble. Yet it cannot be bought, begged, borrowed or stolen, for it is something that is no earthly good to anybody until it is given away. It is a smile. Someone once said that if he could, he would wipe away the tears from all the faces of men and women everywhere. There are lots of things we would all do, if we could. But I’m quite sure of this, that if it lay in our power, we would make everybody happy.
Bing Crosby made popular a lovely little song called, ‘If I Had my Way.’
I’d like to make your golden dreams come true, dear, If I only had my way.
If I had my way, dear, for ever there’d be
A garden of roses for you and for me.
A thousand and one things dear, I would do, just for you, only you,
If I had my way.
We would never grow old and sunshine I’d bring every day:
You would reign all alone, like a Queen on a throne, If I had my way.’
Yes, if we could, we would make everybody happy. But we can’t - not all at once. But the song is right, it points the way. Pick out somebody whom you can make happy. Start there with one individual who needs a little bit of understanding and sympathy and love.
There are hundreds of people who are starving for a little bit of kindness. The world has given them nothing but frowns. They have almost come to feel that they are not worth anything more and their lives reflect the sadness they feel. Perhaps you can’t give them money and they may not need it, but there is something you can give in the way of comradeship and cheerfulness.
W. H. Elliott once said, ‘There is nothing in life better worth the doing than to help a lame dog over a stile, for there is always something in the eyes of a lame dog, when you have got him over his stile that is very sweet to remember.’
Tomorrow, when you meet grumpy people; when you can’t get all the things you want; when the youngsters are difficult and hubby or wife is irritating - try smiling. You will discover that by smiling away anther’s trouble you have smiled away your own.
Jesus once said, ‘Be of good cheer’. After all, people do remember your smile when they forget everything else.
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