It's the little things...and more...

I was out and about today and found that three days in a row of blue sky and a bit of sunshine boost the morale of almost everyone. This is not surprising, but what I noticed even more were the smiles -- affirmations that people had made it through a difficult winter and are still standing. Entire faces smiled - including eyes.  You don't always see that.  Everywhere my errands took me -- people were smiling for no apparent reason -- people were literally walking around, shopping, chopping the remnants of winter ice, shoveling, holding doors for others, pumping gas, speaking to strangers -- all while smiling.  It wasn't total lunacy; it was lovely. I have talked to people about this kind of thing before and this morning was no different.  I chatted with several smiling people as I moved through my morning. You already know what I found, but maybe it is worth repeating...maybe it is important to remember and  to think about sometimes - like now as the season begins to change.

It is more than just the passing of a long, hard winter. It is more than the little things that often make a difference in life. It is more than those first signs of Spring -- a little sunshine, a warm breeze, the song of a bird  -- it is what those little things call to mind:

• a hint of new life...
• a suggestion of the process of beginning again... a fresh start...
• a reminder to us on some level that it is never too late to become who and what we always wanted to be...

Then along with the suggestion of all this is the smile factor...it is so important to remember the ability of a smile to communicate with others.  A smile is so simple really... simple, but powerful. When you bring a smile with you, it reaches out to others; it changes the whole atmosphere around you...for the better. We are responsible for the energy we bring into a room, a store, -- into the world around us in general in our every day encounters. It's not so hard to include a smile. It's such a little thing really..but more.