Last year I took the conscious step of trying to heal myself. This year I want to smile more.
Today I was reminded of something that I used to do whilst my daughter danced at The Urdang Academy in London.
Every other weekend we would travel to London for her classes. She saw very little of the city; we would travel up, she would spend 8 hours in a dance studio, eat and travel home, but I got to explore, shop, eat and observe. I used to try and make eye contact with people, endeavour to walk round with a smile all day just to see if I could get a smile back. It was VERY hard work!
Generally speaking, people don’t seem make eye contact in big cities. New York was different. Or maybe New York was different because WE were different, we were on holiday, we were happy, we were smiling and people respond to that. So here are some things that make me smile:
My children make me smile; they make me cry too, but mostly smile. I cannot think of a better reason to smile.
My friends make me smile; they also make me laugh, proper belly laugh spit out your drink laugh and last year in my ‘healing phase’ I found a new friend. I also found new friends that I haven’t met yet; lots of smiley faces have been shared. Thinking about people like this and remembering conversations- that makes me smile.
When I walk to work and drivers slow down to let me cross the road safely; THAT makes me smile. I have three difficult junctions to manoeuvre across when walking to work, some days the drivers don’t even bother to indicate and I spend ages hesitating at the side of the road. On other days I hit the jackpot and get let across all three. That’s a good start to the day! They can’t know that I got hit by a car when I was fifteen and spent months in hospital. They just slow down and take a brief pause in their day for me.
Cooking & baking make me smile; I ‘stress bake’ which means that if life is challenging I go into the kitchen and bake.I find it therapeutic. If the urge to bake happens when there aren’t enough people in the house to eat the resulting baked goods I give them away; take them to work, share with friends. I hope that makes them smile too.
Thinking about our next adventure coming up later this year, now that really makes me smile. More on that coming soon.
Some of my memories make me smile now and that’s a good thing because it means that part of my self-healing has taken place and it’s time to find more reasons to smile.
So what makes you smile? 
Challenges Choices Changes 
Baking is definitely therapeutic, and the results make others smile, which makes me smile 😀
Exactly, it’s a win win situation 🙂
What a lovely post Jane! My face hurt after smiling all through The Nutcracker the other day. It was amazing!
I’ve smiled a lot this weekend over Twitter and our wee group’s mad ramblings. It’s great fun and I never know where we’ll end up. I’ve also been smiling a lot with a Words With Friends mate. We’ve been setting out what we’d change if we were in charge. Some very sensible things and some not so sensible. More black fruit pastilles and bringing back Gypsy Creams are in order under our rule. But we’re banning horseradish. I hope that’s OK.
It’s all making me smile again. So, thank you.
More black fruit pastilles, the reintroduction of Gypsy Creams and an outright ban on horseradish (stupid name anyway) sounds downright perfect to me. You have my vote.
We can’t wait. It’s going to be lovely!
I am a New Yorker, and I agree that it’s different here. We enjoy people who are enjoying themselves. I’m glad you’re making an effort to smile more. I’m doing something similar. Good luck to us both!
Hello Donna, when we went to NY we expected it to feel a little bit like London- big city, anonymous. It was nothing like it and has really got under my skin. We met some wonderful people when we were there. You are so generous with compliments to strangers it really touched us all. We smiled a lot!
I’m so glad we behaved ourselves! (Sometimes, we don’t.) You should come back soon! And by soon, I mean not until Spring, because this weather sucks hard.
Said I’d be back!
Being a smiler anyway, it doesn’t take much to get me going. On a daily basis the breakfast banter with the kids, singing along to Dean & Helen’s “How do you like your eggs in the morning” on Radio 2 .The drive to work on a nice morning, sun shining, Bennachie looking awesome, with 3 wild deer feeding illegally on a farmers spring barley also in my line of vision also makes for crows feet eyes.
Most music makes me smile whether it be memory provoking or just a good tune.
Most definitely the “quines on twitter”(ear to ear smile)
Sense of achievement at work, excercise or bucket list.
Friday at 4:30.
The countryside of Scotland and finally the first signs of spring being able to go for a walk after work and listening to the play park come to life for the summer.
Keep smiling!
Ahh Mo, what can I say? The quines on Twitter- what wonderful ladies you are, funny as hell and yet full of depth. I am so lucky to know you all. We’ve had many lost in translation moments where I have cried with laughter. After this year’s big adventure, I’m coming to Scotland. It’s a big step for me as I was meant to visit with Jon, but I’m ready now xx
Your ready now comment makes me smile, imagine us four in the same room??
Still smiling!!
I really enjoyed your blog. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thank you 🙂
Hi there! I found your post through Sunday Blog Share. Smiles definitely are infectious, I wish more people would realise it. It’s so easy just to look towards the floor these days when everyone is staring at mobiles!
The random things children say make me smile…well, generally make me snort back a laugh! And windfarms. I clap like a 5 year old when I see them up close!
I know what you mean! I flew into Amsterdam airport recently~ wind farms from the sky are a pretty incredible sight too!