Posted in A Moment in My Life

“Smile. It’s Contagious!”

A Moment in My Life – Tuesday, February 9, 2021

When we began wearing masks, I commented that nobody could see me smiling at them. Smiling was my preferred greeting. I tend towards the shy side. Saying “hi” wasn’t my thing, but a smile was. How many months has it been since we began donning masks? Well, now I am singing a whole different tune. Masking up was hard for me. It took me long enough, but I arrived. Practice does make perfect.

I am preaching to the choir when I say that we never imagined we’d be living the way we lived this past year. Nobody knew we’d be in this “temporary” lifestyle for so long. We are ingenious people with innovative thinking, and we rise to every occasion and make do with the hand that we are dealt. It’s heartwarming hearing stories about people using their talents for good in some way.

It has also been difficult for many people to acclimate to this new “temporary” climate like an uninvited and unwelcome houseguest that won’t leave, but nothing you could do about it. 

I am neither of these people. I’m more in the middle. Neither contributing in a big meaningful way nor struggling to adapt. I wish I had something “big” to contribute. I tend to be an encourager and have been trying to spread happiness every chance I get. I rise early to capture sunrise to share with whoever would accept it, hoping it sparks their day with a smile in their souls. I attempt to write uplifting pieces to warm hearts with words that may remind them of forgotten memories or suggestions to cheer up their days. One of my favorite pastimes is listening to music, and I’ve often shared a song that touched my heart, but I soon realized that my intentions might be good, but my taste differs from most people foiling my plan to spread the merriment around. Oh well, I tried. That’s all I can do.

Without trying, I discovered the most joyful way of spreading smiles around during my recent shopping trip. Did I tell you I love listening to music? Since I found Amazon Music, I can’t stop listening to my favorite playlist. Once I was able to Bluetooth to my car, I was in mobile heaven. Yesterday, I didn’t want to stop listening upon arriving at my destination. With my new cell phone battery, I no longer have to leave my music in the car. All I needed to do was switch off Bluetooth, and voilà my new best friend goes everywhere with me. 

Listening to my peppy favorites like “Feel Good,” “Everybody’s Got a Story,” and “Better in Time” pasted a smile not only on my face beneath my mask but within my soul as well. In a way, it was nice having the mask on so that I didn’t look like a smiling idiot. I didn’t expect that since I began wearing a mask for the first time, people smiled back. I could see them smiling through their eyes! The mask concealed my lips, but my smiling eyes were not. We made eye contact and gave each other a head nod in acknowledgment. Maybe this column should’ve been about music’s impact, but for me, smiling and music are synonymous. I was grooving to my music, killing the Trader Joes’ line wait time, when I noticed the undeniably huge smiling eyes directed at me from the bagger in the next aisle. I don’t usually see clerks smiling like that, but he probably doesn’t regularly see people grooving in a checkout line either. We shared a big smile and head nod, and that made me smile even more. So, let’s spread the smiles around, shall we? All you need to do is smile. It’s contagious!

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