Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Smile! Brighten Up the World!

I am always amazed at how something as simple as a smile even from a stranger will make your day! Today I finished picking up all of the left over supplies from our painting blitz from over the weekend. We were blessed to have 300 volunteers paint the homes of 9 seniors! One of the great benefits for me is that I get to know each of these individuals in a special way.

Today I dropped by a senior center at the local community center to hand out some of the thank you flyers from the painting blitz. A few of the ladies from the center had their houses painted. I was taken back by the lovely smile of Bernice one of my new painting grandmas. She was so thrilled to have her house painted. I was excited being able to give her a hug and listen to her glowing report from the project on Saturday. She had been struggling with poor health over the last few months. Her smile made me smile.

Next I saw one of my other painting grandmas, Mary or I should say Maria who is loco according to herself. She is such a treat to be around because her smile is infectious! She is truly the life of the party type of grandma. I was impressed by her quickness to speak to all of her friends in the center about the painting blitz and how her group transformed her house and do lots of cleanup around her backyard.

It’s always refreshing to be walking down the street and have someone go out of their way to get your attention and then give you a big smile. It makes my day go so much better. Much as I always try to get other people’s attention so they will smile back. I know that it is so easy at times to let circumstances rob you of your joy and smile.

My mom would always remind me that it took way more energy and muscles to frown instead of smiling! So why always go around with this sourpuss expression on your face looking like death warmed over. She would be the one to remind me that a smile will win you friends and influence circumstances in your favor. It isn’t easy to not allow the world around us to rob us of our smile. So I like to play this game where I want to be the first one in a crowd walking down the street to smile and get everyone’s attention. My mom again would be quick to remind me that a smile and a quick hello will help someone’s bad day turn into a great day!


So let your smile change the day for those around you that otherwise would have a blah day!

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