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The Chemawa American
Printed at Chemawa, Oregon, and Devoted to the Interests of Indian Education
Vol. XXVII
Wednesday, December 23, 1925
BE CHEERFUL
We believe that nothing will give such a tremendous
return in efficiency and happiness as the cultivation
of a cheerful, hopeful outlook on life. If we train our
selves to look persistently on the bright side, refuse to
dwell on the dark side, our happiness as well as our
welfare generally is assured. Life would be a song in
stead of a groan, a glory instead of a grind.
A vast number of people—you see them here, there,
everywhere—resolutely close the door against happi
ness and persistently look on the dark side. By so
doing they seal up all the avenues by which joy and
sunshine can enter and illuminate their lives. They
cut themselves off from the good things intended for
them by their doubts, their fears, their suspicions, their
anxieties, their jealousies, their hatreds, their revenge
ful thoughts, their poverty thoughts. These obscure
all the brightness and joy of life. They shut out the
sunshine and make it all shadows. Joy and sunshine
are not gained by asking for them, but only by acting
for them. If we want to be happy we must throw
down the bars that keep sunshine and happiness out
of our lives.
There is no other thing in human living which pays
so well from every point of views as does the cultiva
tion of heart sunshine, a cheerful outlook upon life, a
mental attitude that sees the best instead of the worst
side of everything. It heals all sorrows and misfor
tunes. A cheerful soul seems to have about every
thing that is necessary to make life happy, while a
morose, gloomy, sad, melancholy person is miserable.
Students and readers, sunshine is the source of all
that is strong, wholesome and upbuilding. Darkness
and gloom weaken a person—make him puny and un
productive. Good cheer and uplifting thoughts pro
duce mental harmony, and every thought which tends
to produce mental harmony increases the strength of
faculty, hence increases our power, our efficiency.
Just think what it would mean to each one of us if we
could learn to hold constantly in mind helpful, hope
ful, unselfish, cheerful, optimistic thoughts.
No matter how antagonistic our feelings or our par
ticular mood may be at any time, we can, by using our
will power, change it, neutralize it by dictating to our
No. 14
mentality and persisting in entertaining thoughts of
good cheer, love and joy. We can dictate the kind of
mental guests we will entertain. Every time we per
mit ourselves to look on the dark side, not with the
thought of improving things, but just to pity ourselves;
every time we complain or find fault we are only
weakening our power of resistance and making our
troubles worse. We acknowledge by so doing that
there is a power to hold us down, to make life uncom
fortable, disagreeable, unendurable.
The way to get rid of these enemies of our happiness
is to open our avenues of joy and drive them out of
mind. We can learn to wipe out of our minds all
doubt thoughts, all failure thoughts, all unhappy
thoughts and replace them with their opposites—help
ful and uplifting thoughts. It is astonishing what
tremendous force there is to transform one’s attitude
and aid toward realizing our desires in a persistent and
determined effort to look on the bright side, the hope
ful, optimistic side of everything; to refuse to see the
black, the ugly, the discordant side.
Cheerful, encouraging people create a vitalizing, suc
cess-generating atmosphere. They radiate strength
and courage. Their indomitable spirit helps them to
overcome obstacles and to encourage others.
We are created for happiness. If we are miserable
it is because we persist in holding gloomy thoughts,
in looking upon the dark side instead of the bright side
of the picture. Those people who are always thinking
of their own pleasure and happiness, who will trample
upon the rights and feelings of others in order to se
cure them, will never know what real enjoyment is.
They are so absorbed in their hunt for self-gratification
that they do not know that they are closing the doors
to far higher joys than they can ever know in their
selfish chase for pleasure.
The world is just beginning to learn that whether
we shall be happy or miserable depends entirely upon
ourselves. We are beginning to realize that we carry
within ourselves the panacea for all our ills—the poisons
of selfishness, of envy, of jealousy, of hatred, of anger,
of false ambition, of impurity, of all evil thoughtsand
passions—exists in our own minds in the form of love,
(Continued on pa^e 4)