smile, and may your pain be worthwhile...

Smile, though your heart is aching
Smile, even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky
You'll get by...

If you smile

With your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just...

Light up your face with gladness
Hide every trace of sadness
Although a tear may be ever so near
That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying
You'll find that life is still worthwhile

That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying
You'll find that life is still worthwhile
If you just smile

As I pray to the Lord for your life to be sweet and filled with all the happiness you may need, I pray that the angels watch you sleep, and guard you till the light comes shining through after night, and sorrow be kept away from your sight...

Every soul has a story to tell. Every present has a past, and every darkness was once bright with light. There may be sad stories, there may be tales of joy and wonder, and there may be those who are still wandering aimlessly around, looking for inspiration, looking for hope. What is life without hope? What is love without hope? It keeps you going in times of sorrow. Hope fills your heart with strength for a better tomorrow. But once you give up on hope, then you might as well give up on life. Putting up a brave front is an art that I have mastered to a near perfection. A feat that requires an enormous amount of strength. Strength that would not be possible without faith and hope. For over a year and a half, I have been threading amidst shattered dreams that prick like broken glasses. Some may think I'm simply blowing things way out of proportion, but all I can say to them is that each pain is unique, each sorrow is different and each heart bears it in its own way. I pulled through because I have faith in God and in the fact that He does things for a reason. There are no coincidences. And with that I believe that hope is always there. No matter what. The question remains however, as someone asked me earlier today, is do you move on? I looked deep into my heart and I smiled. For the first time in what has appeared to be aeons, I actually smiled inside. I had music in my head and I had rhythm in my feet, and I smiled. That question did not warrant a verbal answer. It was written in the stars. Penned in magic and crystallized to last through eternity.

Perhaps I'm going around in circles, but then again that's what we writers chose to call poetic license. Laughter is apparent again. Almost obvious, considering I'm even smiling to strangers. How uncanny the way the world turns. It affirms when you least expect it to. It tells you that the answer was there all these while. And I could see it clearly, clearer than a cloudless night, clearer than the sands on the beach.

As I move along forward, I look to the faces around me and smile at them. I take their hands and whisper to the wind. Hoping that it will carry my message across. There's strength in adversity. All it takes is a little courage to brave the storm. The tunnel was never dark, my eyes just got misty with all the tears. No matter what happens, I know what I know. And God knows what I know.

As for right now, I am embracing the moment and seizing the day. What is life if it is not lived? What is love if it is not felt? So all you have to do when you hit a brick wall, is pray and brave yourself to take a moment and close your eyes. Take it all in and realize that it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. The question on whether you should stop loving or not is really something that only braving through will tell you. You may find yourself fearing the answer, but that's life folks. Just like a bed of roses. With thorns and petals and such. There is no such thing as having it easy. Every situation is different and difficult in its own right. It's how you approach it that makes all the difference in the world.

Live like you'll die tomorrow, dance like no one is watching....and love like the world is yours.
Only then will you be able to see the silver lining. The joy that seeps through like a ray of sunshine after a stormy afternoon. Take a moment and smell the rain. Sit quietly for a second and you may just hear a fairy singing. And then you'll be able to smile again.