Day Seventeen - Smile

(still catching up)

The smiles I am most grateful for are my children's smiles.

From the first time you see them, then realize it wasn't a smile but just a fart, until the latest one ... they are just lovely aren't they. I think it's something we shoot for every day, as parents, to see our kids smile. To hear their laughter. To know they are happy.

People don't smile as much at one another when they pass anymore. Too busy looking down, scrolling on their phones. No eye contact any more. No smiles to strangers as they pass. No hellos in the morning. So much so that when I went for a walk a few weeks ago when the nice weather first started in my 'hood, I noticed, I said hi to a gentleman as he passed with his dog. I said "good morning" and he looked at me like I was trying to take something from him. I wasn't. Not at all. I was trying to give him something, actually. Just a greeting. A smile and a friendly hello. That's all.

It seems people are so busy with social media, they have no time for real contact. Face to face socialization. It's less and less common.

Smiles are seen through filtered facebook photos too often.

Those smiles, though they can be just as lovely, are not the smiles I long to see.

The first ones in the morning, when I wake my kids with breakfast. The ones that happen when they are sleeping and their dreams are amazing them. The ones that pop up to brighten their whole faces up when you've finally accomplished the stage of the videogame you've been working on forEVER.

The smiles on my children's faces are the ones for which I am eternally grateful.