Random Smiles

It's Living Lovely day at Mt. Hope Chronicles (and I'm so late I practically missed it!)

This week's challenge was random smiling - as in strangers in public. I'm either really good at this or really terrible. Sometimes when I'm shopping or running errands I get in a zone and people I know really well can walk right by me and I won't even see them. Weird thing is, I am not a head-down, no eye-contact kind of person so usually I smile at lots of people.

I stopped at a crosswalk for a man with a little boy riding on his shoulders and another one running along beside, hanging onto his finger. I grinned huge because it was totally adorable and he saw me smiling and gave me a huge grin back. I'm getting warm fuzzies just remembering.

Recently I was walking out of a store, purse in one hand (my really cute purse handmade by Syl Syl - click the name to visit her etsy shop) and one bag of goods in the other. I was walking slowly because I'm still wearing my protective boot after the ankle injury. An older woman was walking up the sidewalk and we smiled at each other simultaneously. She quipped, "Which one is heavier - the purse or the groceries?" I laughed and told her my purse was (if I wouldn't carry a book with me everywhere that might not be the case). "And they wonder why we have back problems." She chuckled.

And that was that. A quick connection between two complete strangers. I don't know what it did for her but it still makes me smile thinking about it.

Next time you are out and about are you going to connect with someone even for just a few seconds? Give them a few seconds of your time and make them feel noticed and acknowledged? Who knows what you might accomplish with just a little smile.

Speaking of, I hope this gives you a little smile - my friend's four month old daughter can make anyone feel like a million when she smiles.