A Smile

Sometimes a smile can make all the difference. A smile when one wakes up. A smile in the middle of the day. A smile when one ends the day. A smile when someone does something kind for you, for no reason, and a smile when you feel like doing something nice for a stranger without expectations. Today, I was thinking of the many reasons I have to smile everyday.

I lead an extremely blessed life. I wake up every morning taking stock of things that overwhelm me with feelings of gratitude, and I smile. I have people around me, who for the most part, make me smile. My dog, I swear, was a clown in her past life. I think she looks at me and smiles, sometimes gives me a look, like her mom is the most insane human she has seen, and at other times, looks at me so cutely, that I have to remember to be strong to scold her for something bad she did. 

I have people who love me, and for that I feel really grateful. I have no idea what I have done to deserve this much, but they seem to be okay with my goofy side, moody side, cranky and grumpy side, and any other sides I choose to express. I wake up and go to sleep thinking how love is the strongest force in this world. How love can truly overcome anything, everything. I wonder what our world would be like if our world leaders used love to be the driving force for political negotiations. How many places would we bomb then? 

I wish for our world, for us as humanity, that someday we wouldn't have to kill others, bomb others, to take down people, groups of people, countries, civilizations to establish our superiority. That perhaps one day, someone somewhere in charge would say, "Enough" and begin to shift politics and negotiations from a place of love, care, and unconditional acceptance and abandon judgement. What would our international relations look like then? What would happen if we didn't operate from a place of fear, but from a place of gratitude and camaraderie? 

I go to bed, imagining a world full of utopian possibilities, and I smile. Perhaps it takes just one person, at any given moment to say, "Enough," and not just rely on someone in leadership position. Perhaps that one person can be me, today. And maybe tomorrow, someone else could be inspired, and the next day, another. I am reminded of Margaret Mead, when she says, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; Indeed, it's the only thing that ever does."

I will end with a tune that always lifts me up and makes me want to do my part in bringing smile, balance, and unconditional acceptance in my own life and extend that outwards. So today I smile. I smile because I have so little to complain about and so much to be grateful for. I smile because I am alive, and I felt the ocean breeze blowing through my hair and making my lipstick smear on my cheek, which made me look like someone had beaten me across my face when I went to work, and induced a crimson blush on my already marked face. I smile, because I have dirty thoughts in my head about the marks on my cheeks. I smile because when I reach out while in pain, I have people who sit with me, talk to me, listen to me, cuddle me, and wrap me in a protective blanket, until I feel strong and ready to face my fears. I smile because no matter what happens tomorrow, I got to live today, and I have so much to live for today. I smile, because, just because.