“I live,” said a friend, “on the sunny side of the hill.”
Why not? Every hill has two sides. It may be a long way around to the other one, but it’s there. Move! Why live in the gloom?
Early in Spring the peach-trees are blooming on the sunny slope, while on the other the soil is still cold and backward. Their blossoms laugh to the sky. There is fragrance and beauty on the sunny side.
Every condition into which we get has two sides. No matter how dispiriting it is, somewhere it has a face whereon the light falls. Let us look around until we find it.
Only this view of the cloud is dark. Above, the sun pours on it, it is white and bright. Come, let us fly over the clouds and not always live beneath them.
You have no flying-machine? Oh yes, you have. Imagination is one wing of your airplane, and faith is the other, while the powerful propeller is courage. Learn moral aeronautics.
Every man, every woman, you meet has a sunny side. Nobody is totally impossible. With the use of a little self-control and persistence you can discover a side to every one where he shines a bit with agreeableness.
Love is a great sun-finder. Look at some of the men that women love!
And selfishness and pride are the prize gloom-finders. A selfish person always moves on the north side of people. Such a one would find fault with the music of Israfel or the looks of Aphrodite.
Every event that happens has its sunny side. There is a shrewd and wise way to take any failure or disaster, any sickness or bereavement. Not hard stoicism, but gentle faith, I mean.
There is a Buddhist tale of a dead dog, lying by the roadside. Many passed and expressed their aversion. Then came the sage, and as he looked upon the repulsive object he remarked:
“What beautiful teeth!”
