There are many people in this world with smiling faces, wishing us to "have a nice day." Indeed, our culture seems determined to have us smile, and not just when the camera is on us. We have to wonder what is going on behind all the smiles. How many lives of quiet despair lie hidden there? How many soft voices are whispering Job's prayer? "Perish the day I was born" .

That prayer can find resonance in most hearts from time to time, especially when, as it was for Job, the burdens of life are successively compounding and there seems no end to our troubles. Where do we go then, when all the little "happy thoughts" and all the surface strategies for bringing back smiles are obviously ineffectual?

There is only one place to go, and that is where we should have gone in the good times so we would get to know the way. Turn inward to the Spirit who has dwelt within each of us from the moment of our birth, the Spirit who is our Counsellor and Guide, our Consoler and our Wisdom.

Rest with the Spirit awhile every day, and know you are not alone. Know for sure that deep inside you there is a divine reason to smile always!