The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1915-01-02
WHERE THE HONEY OF LIFE is
FOUND.
Copyright By Mcclure Nowspapcr syndicate

Some folks tries so hard ter be
happy in dis worT dey gifts miserable
tryin'. Happiness is allus whar you
amt lookin' fer it."
That they have not found happi.
ness where they expected to find it
has been the experience of every hui
man being who has made a speciality
of hunting for it. Happiness is not
gained that way. 1t is the product
of a deed and not to be found by
hunting, as sportsmen hunt for wild
animals.
Real happiness is so simple that
most people do not recognize IL. 1t
is derived from the simplest, the quiz
etest, the most unpretentious things
in the world.
1t is difficult for many people who
are honestly striving to make the
most of themselves to see how they
a possibly get happiness out of
their monotonous, humdrum voca-
lions to which they are chained by
necessity or on account of those who
are dependent upon them. These
people would get a good lesson by
studying the bees, who, every min
ute during the day of the honey sea
son, are finding sweets in every weed,
In poisonous flowers, in things in
which we would never think of look
ing for anything good.
If we are ever happy, 1t will be be-
cause we create happiness out of u
environment with ali it's v~exations,
cares and disheartening conditions.
He who does not learn to create his
happiness as he goes along, out of the
days work, with all its trials, its
a~ntagonisms, its obstacles, with all its
little a~nnoyances, disappointments,
has missed the great life secret. 1t is
put of this daily round of duties, out
of the stress and strain and strife
of life, the attrition of mind with
mind, disposition with disposition
out of this huckstering, buying and
selling world-that we must get the
honey of life, just as the bee sucks
the sweetness from all sorts of flow
ers and weeds.
An old farmer was once asked at
a meeting Of the Agricultural con
gress to give his opinion on the best
slope of land for the raising of a
particular kind of fruit. 1T does
not make so much difference" said
the old man, about the slope u the
land as the slope of the man" Many
a farmer who has the right slope
makes a good living and gets q com
petence on very poor. soil, while the
farmer who does no slope the right
way barely exists upon the richest
soil.
Happiness does not depend so much
upon our being favorably environed
as upon the slope of our mind.
Nothing contributes more to the
highest success than the formation OF
a habit of seeing the bright side OF
things. Whatever your calling in life
may be, whatever misfortunes OIL
~hardships may come to you, make VI
your mind resolutely that, come what
may, you will get the most possible
real enjoyment out of every day;
that o will increase your capacity
for enjoying life by trying to fine
the sunny side of every experience OF
the day. Resolutely determine that
you will see the humorous side OF
things. No matter how hard or un
: yielding your environment may seen
to be, there is a sunny side If you
can only see it. The mir~th-provokine
faculty, even under trying circum
stances, is worth more to a young
man or woman starting out in life
than a fortune without it. Resolve
that you will be an optimist; that
there shall be nothing of the pes
simist about you; that you will carry
your own sunshine wherever you go
Thus you may make poetry out Of
the prosiest life, bring sunshine tt
the darkest home and develop beauty
and grace amid the ugliest surround
ings.