Posts Tagged ‘can’t smile’
Wow, for some reason it was just kind of hard to smile this day! But I tried. I visited a local bank and got in a smile at the teller, although she first gave me a big smile. There is another teller at this same bank that does not smile at all at anybody. What a difference! I smiled as much as possible with the family, although some of the kids were misbehaving, making it difficult to do so. As I said before, smile when you can . . .
I guess one significant thing related to this experiment was something I realized about my mother-in-law. I never mentioned this but she is nearly deaf but a smile was able to get through that barrier. In fact, that is all that was needed. I would bet a smile could also help you in a foreign land where nobody spoke your language as well. I would conclude that
A smile is a universal communication tool. It cuts across all language barriers and speaks volumes where words can not be spoken.
This Easter Sunday had us in church. I smiled at friends and most smiled back, as usual. But one thing that jumped out at me this day was that I found myself having a different outlook on those people I noticed that were not smiling at all: instead of worrying about me (why are they not smiling at me?), I shifted my focus to them and the possible difficulties and struggles they may be facing. There are situations where a person just can’t smile, no matter how hard they try. And there was at least one such person I spoke with.
Back at home, we celebrated my youngest son’s birthday. It was an enjoyable time for all our family and my wife’s parents (If you are wondering why we see so much of my wife’s parents it is partially because they live next door). Everyone was smiling, including me of course. Even my oldest teen at times. It was a fun afternoon. It is difficult to know if my smiling had an effect since it was a naturally smiley day. At any rate, I am quite certain that my added smiles did not put a damper on the event!
This day started with some bumps. Amidst a lot of work to do teaching my distance ed courses from my home office, my wife tried to install some software on her computer that would not work and through a series of events (prompts, popup ads, etc) ended up purchasing a $30 piece of fairly useless software that seems to offer no way for us to get a refund. In other words, we are probably out $30. So my wife was not happy, nor was I. It was tough to get much smiling in early on even though we were not arguing – we were both just a bit upset about being ripped off. But, by early afternoon, things got back on schedule and my wife seemed very happy that I could give her a hug and a smile. This made me wonder – if I wasn’t doing this experiment I may have brooded about that stupid thirty dollars for days! Another reason to think that this experiment should continue indefinitely.
In the evening, we went to the Easter presentation that my wife wanted to see a week prior. And guess who went with us in addition to our two daughters and daughter’s friend? My father-in-law and mother-in-law! I am almost certain that this whole smiling thing played a big part in my mother-in-law being willing to go with us. I am hard-pressed to remember too many other times that my inlaws (both of them) have gone out with my wife and I for anything besides perhaps our kids piano recital or other such event.
This day certainly started off in an un-smiley way. Teenager trouble in the morning. That can wipe the smile off anyone’s face if they are a parent.
But, once at work, I found it easy to smile. Smiled at and with coworkers with the usual positive reactions. And got in some good ones with coworkers I barely know. A few seemed a little surprised I think – but it was fun. What was sort of eventful about this day was that I came to this realization:
Smile as much as you can, whenever you can. Cause there will be periods of your life where you just can’t smile.
And with that realization, I came to regard the ability to smile as a precious commodity. In some circles this would be interpreted as Count Your Blessings.
