The Best You Have May 2, 1948

If you give the world

          the best you have

Will the best come back

          to you?

Or would you have it

          go on and on,

And see the good you

          can do?

If you give to a hungry

         world your love,

The thing that most it

          will need;

Don't wonder if love

          will come back to you,

But have faith in

          your work and deed.

If you give your smiles

          to those you meet,

Don't wonder what they

          will find;

Forget all thought of

          self in the deal,

In the joy of having been kind.

If you share your flowers

          as they bloom each day,

The sowing will not

          be in vain;

You scatter the seeds--

          let the petals fall--

The roses will bloom

          after the rain.

If you give to the world

          the best you have,

Will the best come

          back to you?

Or would you have it

          to travel on

Doing all the good it can do?

                                       V.C.