Highs and Lows

If all the world were broad and flat
How dull the scene would be!
We’d wish instead for hills and vales
With changing views to see.

If all of life were free from care,
Devoid of tears and pain,
There’d be no failure or success-
No summits to attain.

But life is filled with ups and downs,
With happiness and woe.
Our joys are like the mountaintops,
Our sorrows lie below.

The Lord who made the lofty peaks
Designed the valleys too.
And He is there at every turn
To guide our passage through.

Amy Clarke Ellis

Comforting Poems
From the
Salesian Collection