Smiles. There is a lot of power in a little smile. Songs, poems, articles, and whole books have been written about smiles. In his book Growing an Inch, Stanley Gordon West penned, “Smile and the world smiles with you, cry and you cry alone.” How very true. Who wouldn’t want to be surrounded by joy and happiness? We are trying to do our part to spread as much joy and happiness as we can. You may have noticed some of our Moments of Motivation have our friendly mascot sporting a crooked grin across his heart-shaped face as we share with you things that make us smile.
You will read pearls of wisdom such as:
A smile says hello in every language, Smiles bloom where there use to be gloom, and Add a smile to shorten the miles.
But do we really believe this stuff? Yes! We do!
Consider this story. You may recall from previous posts that Diem and Michael (that’s us), live on opposite sides of the country. With technology providing phone, text, email, and video chat and conferencing, we’re never much more apart that the typical work colleagues sharing a space. But for a several reasons, we managed to go from November of last year to this June without actually seeing each other. We spoke, we messaged, we emailed, we even used the postal system, but we hadn’t gotten on a video call or conference, nor met in person for the whole of those eight months. As you can imagine, a lot happens in eight months. We got sick, we got well, and family members did likewise. There were unexpected losses, and and there were unexpected gains. New projects, and the same old grind conspired to keep us from seeing a familiar smiling face in a nearby screen. During that time, no matter how often one would get a positive response to “how are you doing,” asked by the other, we couldn't really tell how positive that response was. When we ultimately connected “face to face” and saw those smiles, we knew everything was okay and will continue so.
It is easy to say happy words and “fudge it” a little, feigning long distance happiness, but a smile speaks in a language that cannot be misinterpreted. And the power of those smiles further shortens those miles.
Our wish is that you continue to enjoy our funny faced mascot as you read our smiling motivations and pass them on. Put a smile in your day every day, invest in your smile, and pass it on. Give the gift of your smile freely! We can safely say,
"Smile! It will all come back to you!"
