It amazed me - every time I saw Joe he was smiling. It didn't matter whether he had to stop at a stop light, or if he were the seventh person in line at the bank, and the teller closed her bay just before he got there. Joe always smiled. It made me wonder why he always seemed so happy.
Having observed Joe with other people, I noticed something else also. Joe asked people how they were doing, and really seemed to listen to their answers. He was compassionate if someone were hurting, and had kind words, and offered to help in any way he could.
It made me think...what if I tried to smile more? An experiment of sorts began when I went to the grocery store. I smiled as I went up and down the aisles...and people I didn't even know smiled back at me. Some even spoke! The little kid in the cart who was giving his mother a hard time saw me smile and stopped talking...and, you guessed it'he made a shy little attempt at a smile. The man in the handicapped cart needed a person to reach something...I could get that for him. The smile even transferred over to him, and he thanked me.
As I drove home, I was smiling. I thought about what I had just learned, and when someone passed me and gave me a gesture, I smiled at him. He looked perplexed.
Now I know a smile is a small thing, but what if we were all to try to smile a few more times each day? I couldn't believe how great I felt. Nothing in my life had changed...but maybe it had. For what I learned was that such a small thing could lift not only my spirits, but those around me as well.
Having observed Joe with other people, I noticed something else also. Joe asked people how they were doing, and really seemed to listen to their answers. He was compassionate if someone were hurting, and had kind words, and offered to help in any way he could.
It made me think...what if I tried to smile more? An experiment of sorts began when I went to the grocery store. I smiled as I went up and down the aisles...and people I didn't even know smiled back at me. Some even spoke! The little kid in the cart who was giving his mother a hard time saw me smile and stopped talking...and, you guessed it'he made a shy little attempt at a smile. The man in the handicapped cart needed a person to reach something...I could get that for him. The smile even transferred over to him, and he thanked me.
As I drove home, I was smiling. I thought about what I had just learned, and when someone passed me and gave me a gesture, I smiled at him. He looked perplexed.
Now I know a smile is a small thing, but what if we were all to try to smile a few more times each day? I couldn't believe how great I felt. Nothing in my life had changed...but maybe it had. For what I learned was that such a small thing could lift not only my spirits, but those around me as well.
Source: www.values.com
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