Smiles All Round

This is the second time that I sort of plan out my weekly post (usually about something that’s been bothering me, so I start out negative) and then it gets turned on its head. A week or so back the thing that happened was a young woman crying on the train. Today it was a woman smiling at me. Or maybe I smiled at her. But she noticed that I smiled and struck up a little, short, wonderful conversation. “You smiled!” she said. “So many people don’t, and I just go around noticing how many people are smiling on their own, and how many will smile back at me if I smile at them.”

I don’t know if it was automatic on my part (I like smiling, sets off endorphins and lets me have a better day, so, you know, it’s all about me) or if I really thought about it. But wouldn’t it be nice if everyone’s default expression was pleasant?

I think about bullies I’ve known “What do you have to smile about?” and now, with great confidence, I can say “Absolutely nothing at all!” I smiled because I saw two crows just kind of hanging out doing crow things by the train station and a little kid on the bus with an absolutely adorable bow in her hair; I had nice chat with the lady in the café while buying a coffee this morning. It’s gloomy and gray but not cold yet. I will see an old friend for lunch who I haven’t seen in months. All’s good, man! And I live with a stuffed cow who has a permanent smile sewed onto his face. What’s not to smile about?