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Smile!


"A smile is happiness you'll find right under your nose." --Tom Wilson

What's In a Smile?

Lately, my days seem like a blur.

Sometimes it feels like I'm being pulled in ten different directions at once, and can't seem to keep up with any of it. I know there are others out there who feel the same.

At the end of the day I'm exhausted. Mentally, and physically. Not unhappy. Just tired.

Yesterday, I realized how little energy is sometimes left for the people I love the most. I doesn't seem fair, especially to them. Why is it the most important people in our lives always seem to get the least of us?

I have smiles all day for the people around me. At work, at the grocery store, strangers I meet.

Then I get home and there's so much to do. When I finally sit down, my laptop comes out and I get to work on writing.

Before long I fall asleep.

I realized lying in bed last night, that my husband deserved a better and more enthusiastic greeting than he received last night when he arrived home from work.

It's not that I wasn't happy to see him. He's the most important person in the world to me.

And I'm almost certain he smiled at me when he came in the door. His smile immediately brings me up an notch. And I can't remember. Did I smile back? Does he know that even if it was only on the inside, that his smile literally brightens my day? Way back, I remember it was his smile I noticed first when I met him. (Well, that and he did look awfully cute in that baseball uniform...)

Smiles have the power to do that.

"If you have only one smile in you give it to the people you love." -- Maya Angelou

How To Turn That Frown Upside Down

This morning at work, one of my students came into the building with a frown. I smiled at him, a big silly, goofy, light-up your face smile. And he smiled through his frown. Oh, he fought it, valiantly trying to hold onto his frown. But the smile eventually won, and as it bloomed it transformed his entire face.

All it took was one smile to turn his emotions around.

This revelation made me stop and take a deeper look at how we see others.

"A warm smile is the universal language of kindness." -- William Arthur Ward

Pass It On

Think of those unknown people out there, who most likely have lives every bit as busy and ours. It's a rushy-rush world we live in. And we're all in it together.

Busy, busy, busy. Go here. Stop in there. Drop off this. Pick up that. Dinner, laundry, cleaning, work, kids, pets, homework...

The list goes on and on. Though it varies from person to person, we all live a bustling, often overwhelming life.

Remember that the next time you see a person with a haggard face pushing her cart at the grocery store.

Or a driver who slams on his breaks.

A grandparent frowning while waiting to pick up her grandchild in the pick-up line at school.

Try giving them a smile. See if it really is contagious.

Courtesy is usually repaid in kind.

Kindness begets kindness.

You really do get back what you give.

And you know what? Maybe someone will do the same for you when you need it most!

"A smile is a curve that sets everything straight." --Phyllis Diller

 

Kristen L. Jackson, Author of KEEPER OF THE WATCH

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