South Bend news-times., 1915-07-19
Make Life Beautiful
BY Ada Patterson
%. il an be done.

Yes, IL can be done.
L agree with you that life presents
some sharp, ugly edge of actuality.
But il is, at worst, like a jagged rock
whose edges are hidden by a grace
fully carpeting vine. So some Of the
hardest facts of life can be sOftened
by the twining tendrils of fancy. It's
sharp surfaces and dun cOlOrs can be
hidden by the brilliant tints of poetry.
Do not be impatient at mention of
the word poetry; practical man or
woman who reads this. You may say
very honestly that you hate rhymes.
But you may be a poet without know
ing it. poet is one who sees the
beauty in commonplace things, and
translates them into a fine glow of
appreciation of that beauty.
If your eyes filled while you watched
a mothers faded eyes follow the son,
taking train that day TO the city to
seek his fortune in that maelstrOm
where opportunities and temptations
whirl past I'm equal numbers and
with the same dizzying raPidity If
you saw the beauty of her self forget
fulneSs in giving the boy his chance
even though she had a premonitiOn
that she would never see him again.
you are a poet for YOU have seen the
beauty in one of the cOmmOnplaces of
life. Try to find the beauty in every
aspect of life. 1t is there. Seek il
and so make life more beautiful.
Make life more beautiful for your
son by placing an illuminated adage
above his desk. For your office boy
by placing a print of a good picture
where his too often rowing eyes will
fall upon il. Not one of the traver-
sizes from the comic sections Not
pair of American athletes pummelling
each other within a scrap of an inch
of their lives. Place somewhere near
his snub and freckled nose a little
reproduction Of a marine view.
The ship with full sail on a smooth
sea will feed his sense of beauty and
stimulate his imagination in right di-
rectiOns.
When all employers have grasped
the truth that men and women work
best when they are happy and that
they are happier when they are within
clean, fair surroundings, employers
will Danish dust and CRIME and will
place their workers besides windows
from which they can glimpse field or
mountain, river or sea. or the far blue
sky. or. if these essentials are denied,
there may be cheap but good prints
of notices pointing the way TO some
of the beauty of life, Convince a COM
mander of a working army of this
truth and he Will spend hundreds of
thousands 10 make the surroundings
of his workman inspiring and he Will
be in pocket by the experiment.
A word of appreciation can make
the day glow with beauty. Tell
man of work we'll done. Tell a girl
that the sun and fresh air have made
her as fresh and wholesome as a daisy
and YOU Will not only Aave made
beautiful her day but you will have
encouraged her To continue the sun
and air baths that will make of her
good. sweet-Ratured and vigorous
woman.
Appreciate that word Of apprecia-
ton that is spoken 10 YOU about your
own efforts. but don't expect IL. This
is n busy world and the busy folk in
il may let an opportunity TO speak
such word pass. Strike the keynote
of your own day and live up TO that
note. You have known "A musician
who asked you 10 name a chord for
him. and. when YOU said, for instance
Chg" he built upon, embroidered.
endlessly adorned the motif with his
art and his fancy. So strike the note
of your day by some fine thought
He was a benefactor 10 humanity
who invented the calendars wherein
a stimulating thought OF some anoint-
ed thinker is revealed 70 YOU every
day by tearing of a leaf. IL is quite
safe To take the pitch of your day
from a key thought OF Dickens or
Robert Louis Stevenson. or Sir James
Barrie or Arnold Bennett. Let the
thought run through your day and
color IL with It's hues redeem It's
drahness. beautify il.
You can make your life beautiful
care not who YOU are nor what. For
life is ugly or beautiful according 10
our thought Oft. You like one per
son and dislike another. Outwardly
they seem like enough but within they
are different. The difference is one
OF thought. What really matters IS
the thought life