Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Praise Day

Let us halt now for a space in our hurrying
Let us take time to look up and look out.
Let us refuse for a spell to be worrying;
Let us decline both to question or doubt.
If one goes caviling
Hair splitting, flaw hunting, ready for strife,
All the best pleasure is missed in the traveling
Onward through life.

Just for today we will put away sorrowing
Just for today not a tear shall be shed.
Nor will we fear anything or go borrowing
Pain from the future by profitless dread.
Thought shall go frolicking
Pleasuring, treasuring, everything bright;
Tasting the joy that is found just in rolicking
On through the light.

Just for today all the ills that need bettering
We will omit from our notebook of mind.
All that is good we will mark by red lettering;
Those things alone we are seeking to find.
Things to be sad over,
Pine over, whine over, pass them, I say.
Nothing is noted save what we are glad over--
This is Praise Day.