It Might Have Been Worse

Of all sad words
of tongue or pen
the saddest are these:
IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN.

Let's add this thought
unto this verse:
It might have been
A GREAT DEAL WORSE.

Sometimes I pause and sadly think
  Of the things that might have been,
Of the golden chances I let slip by,
  And which never returned again.

Think of the joys that might have been mine;
  The prizes I almost won,
The goals I missed by a mere hair's breadth;
  And the things I might have done.

It fills me with gloom when I ponder thus,
  Till I look on the other side,
How I might have been completely engulfed
  By misfortune's surging tide.

The unknown dangers lurking about,
  Which I passed safely through
The evils and sorrows that I've been spared
  Pass plainly now in review.

So when I am downcast and feeling sad,
  I repeat over and over again,
Things are far from being as bad
  As they easily might have been.

--G.J. Russell