I made a pact with myself: A smile pact.
If someone were to take a picture of me every 5 minutes during the course of one day what would they capture? Ugh. They would see concentration. Stress. Frustration. On my best days!
Children smile up to 400 times a day. What happened to my smile? I could say it got lost in deadlines. Or maybe swallowed up by failures. Perhaps it was stolen by sorrows.
In reality, nothing happened to my smile. It’s still there! I just forget to smile.
Here’s what I want people to see: a twinkle in my aging eyes, some wrinkles lines along the corners of my face, a few crooked teeth wouldn’t be so bad either!
Smiles are contagious. So is complaining. And gossip. And stress and anxiety. What do I want other people to ‘catch’ from me? That’s easy.
And so, I made this pact to myself and to my Creator. I’m going to smile – even if only to myself. My smile will be contagious to me then, too. That’s ok. Let them wonder what I’m smiling about. And then watch them start to smile.
Anyone care to join me in this endeavor?
“I picture each day as if it were a happy dog looking at me. I may not be in the mood, but the dog always wants to play. Trust the dog.” – John Patrick Shanley, playwright