SOMETIMES IT ONLY TAKES A SMILE

Several years ago, don’t ask me how many as the years pass so quickly and fade so easily into oblivion, I was out grocery shopping. As I got out of the car and approached the entrance to the store, I noticed a sign on the closest parking spot to the store’s entrance, a sign that I had never seen before. It read “Parking for expectant mothers”. I smiled and continued towards the entrance. A young employee was sitting on a bench on her break. She said to me, “It’s nice to see someone smile today.”

I suspect I made her day, or at least that part of the day. On the other hand, my wife, The Nurse, whenever she sees that same sign anywhere reminds me that the sign should be at the far end of the parking lot and not next to the door because what expectant mothers need to do is walk. They need the exercise. Once again, I smile. Sometimes it does not take very much to do so.

Sometimes we forget that. There is so much to smile about in this life, in this world of ours. That is not to discount the truth that there is also so much to be sad about. The daily news is replete with tragic stories near and far. One cannot smile when floods devastate, when innocent children are struck down by a stray bullet, when a terrorist strikes. No smile at all, just tears.

And yet sometimes all it takes is a smile to brighten the day of someone having a bad day. We’ve all had them and will have them again and again. Even more, we never know when those days are coming. Some days start off wonderfully and then something happens, something is said, and we’re down in the dumps, Maybe, like the young lady at the grocery store, we take a break to get away from it for a while hoping that when we return, things will be better. Maybe they will be. Maybe they won’t.

That does not mean that when life is not going the way we would like it to go at the moment and, for whatever reason everything seems to be going south, we put on a happy face and pretend all is well. That only makes the situation worse. What it does mean is that sometimes in such situations we have to remember that things could indeed be worse. That, at least, is a reason to smile.

The point is that we so often takes life’s little pleasures for granted. We don’t take the time to stop and smile about whatever it is that gives us a sense of joy at the moment. I don’t remember why I stopped and smiled when I read the sign. I don’t even know why I looked up to see and read it in the first place. The fact that I did and that it made someone I did not know who was obviously having a bad day feel better made me feel good. And I have never forgotten that moment.

Silly? I suppose. But it is those unexpected moments in our lives that make another smile that can lift someone up who is down and make our life at the moment even more joyful.