Smiles

Smile!!! The world is full of wonderful things!!

There is always a reason to smile, just as there is always a reason to choose to be upset. The difference lies in choosing one of these reasons to guide our day.

It's funny how we can represent the best in the world, but also the worst. What will trigger the decision to be a nice person, to have an altruistic and beautiful attitude toward others, and what will trigger us, as days go by, to be unfriendly and eventually be capable of bad and petty attitudes?

We are a reflection of what we do, and everything we do generates energy! It is this energy that we transmit to others. What I call energy are only our attitudes and the power they have to influence those who surround us. The efforts that we put in our day to day is transmitted to all those that surround us.

It may be easier to understand by imagining these two opposite situations:

You wake up next to someone who is in a good mood and sweet. You leave the house and, before getting in the car, you stop at a cafe where you are served by someone who is in a good mood and, with a smile from ear to ear, wishes you a radiant day. That afterwards, at the newsstand you are served nicely and cheerfully. The newspaper you buy only brings positive news (the news of a family that adopted an orphaned refugee child, another of a sick person who received enough donations to finally have that critical surgery and be saved, that Brazil created the largest natural reserve in the world to save the Amazon forest, that the great companies of the world decided to give a good part of their profits to charity and nature conservation, that the child exploitation finally finished, etc, etc ...). You enter your car and, at the next intersection, the driver on your right, with a smile and with a nice gesture gives you passage. When you arrive at work, your colleagues are in a good mood and greet you with a smile, letting you feel assured that if any problem arises, there will always be someone willing to help. And so on, all day long ... With all this, it is impossible for you to not feel good! Why?! Because without realizing it you were continually receiving positive energy.

All the situations of the day-to-day mentioned above (except the news of the "wonder newspaper") have happened to me; so its not at all impossible. What is difficult, of course, is that they will all happen on the same day with this fantastic chain of events!!

Now imagine the opposite situation: you wake up and start the morning with a fight. As you leave the house and stop at the cafe, you are poorly served (the cup is almost thrown over the counter with such ill-will that it spills and almost gets your clothes dirty). That on the newsstand the newspaper seller does not even look at you, merely extending the newspaper with a grunt of annoyance when giving you the change. As you look at the newspaper, you come across another nuclear test; one more war that will provoke thousands of homeless; a few thousand hectares of forest were burned; a few thousand more people dying of hunger; or that an uncle that stabbed his cousin's mother-in-law; etc, etc...). After reading all this you get into our car and some person in some car brutally crosses in front of you and still manages to offend you with a dirty word, leaving you annoyed that you couldn’t reply accordingly. When we finally reach your destination, your workplace, you are ignored or depreciated. And on and on...

Almost no one can resist this sequence and be in a good mood after all this.

I wish I could say, as in the previous case, that this chain of events is also unlikely to happen... but it is not. It's worrying to think about it, but its not at all unusual!! We've all been through something like that.

What is the reason why the positive sequence is so much more unusual than the negative one? Its even stranger if we think that any of the attitudes taken there, whether good or bad, are perfectly possible and that it is only in our hand to choose which one to take.

Then why?? Why is the world more often ill willing than good willing? Why do we think that if a person is unfriendly, we also have to be? For what purpose?

Why would we all think that if a person is nasty towards us, we should behave equally? For what purpose? Because we all think this way, we seldom see smiles throughout our day. But the fault is ours alone, because we all embark on this wave of not being nice because others are not.

It is not unreasonable to think that whoever is unfriendly may be so just because that person has been mistreated since they left home... poor thing!! So why, despite their unsympathetic air, we will not reciprocate with a smile and do not wish that person a great day? Sometimes the result is amazing. Usually we get good surprises from the fact that we respond with sympathy to those who are unfriendly. It is quite possible that we will now see this person understand that there was no reason to be unfriendly towards us and try to redeem himself, to be nice in some way; possibly even in an unusual way, forcing situations that had already passed, and for that reason almost become funny.

There is a small true story that I love and illustrates well the principle I stand for:

A grandfather took his grandson every day to school, and on their way they stopped at a newspaper stand where they would buy the newspaper.

Systematically the newspaper man was unfriendly and frowning when attending customers, but the kid’s grandfather always responded nicely and in a friendly tone. After some time the child asked his grandfather why he treated a person who was always so unfriendly in a nice way. The grandfather then answered:

"For two reasons, my dear grandson: First of all, because he may not be unfriendly but unhappy, and if I buy the newspaper there every day, in a good mood, this could be a way to help improve the day of this unhappy person.

This answer would have sufficed for his grandson, but his grandfather continued:

- And secondly what do you think should prevail, hostility or friendliness?

The grandson answered convinced and promptly - Friendliness...!

- Of course!!! Don’t you think I should still be friendly to him? If not, I would be letting his bad mood prevail and defeat my good mood. If I stop being in a good mood with everyone around us our day would be much worse.

I think this story is brilliant!!!

We sow what we reap and, if we think like this, the stories that we have always heard about the teachings of Christ, about the turning the other cheek, will make real sense, a broader sense than the one we were taught in catechesis.

I used to criticize the hypocrisy of people over Christmas. Why do most people are careless about others throughout the year, and suddenly at this time and only because it is Christmas, they decide to be thoughtful about everyone?

Now I do not criticise it anymore. Christmas is indeed a truly special season!!!

It is special because we make it special. Perhaps because of some childish purity that we all keep, we think everyone is nicer at Christmas and believe more in others. As such, we smile more. If we all think this way (or at least most of us), we will generate a wave of smiles and contagious positive energy and, without realizing how, everyone will start to wake up more willingly, to walk happier, to believe more in one another; without realizing it, we will smile more for others and, in turn, like us, others will receive more smiles as well.

Christmas no doubt generates a wave of positive energy. We just need to be able to remember it throughout the year, more often, and practice a little more, since a smile should cause a chain reaction to be continued. Something of the type: - "Give and it will be given to you".

Smiles, kindness and good mood are fantastic elements in our life and those who can put them into practice are able to move mountains!!!

Merry Christmas!! And I wish you a life full of smiles!!!

FM

Q. I dedicate this text to my Grandfather Zeca.

He was the most smiley, optimistic and friendly person I've ever met!! He was a real breath of fresh air, to everyone around him and wherever he went!!