Member-only story
Smiling Because I Want to Smile
Habit #17 in my 30 day journey
“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh
Look, I’m not about to tell anyone else to smile. You don’t owe a smile to anyone. I’m adding smiling in as habit #18 because smiling makes me happier.
When I was in high school not only was family dinner around the table a command performance so was breakfast. I would stumble to the table and grumpily pour my Cheerios.
“Smile Mary!” my dad would say nearly every morning. “Life can’t possibly be that bad.”
Another of his favorites, which always made him smile, if not burst out laughing at his own wit, “I’m going to design a toothbrush curved like a smile. That way you will be forced to smile every morning when you brush your teeth.”
Although these memories make me smile now, at the time they deepened my frown and prompted thoughts of patricide.
Smiling on command to please someone else will lower not lift your spirits.
Smiling on command to please someone else will lower not lift your spirits.
