If By Chance You Meet a Frown...

We all have those days, when smiling is the last thing on our minds. You know what I'm talking about. Those days when your running from hear to there so fast that you turn on auto-pilot and just go, or those days when nothing seems to go right.

My five year old is very perceptive, and she picks up on peoples moods pretty easily. Last week my teenage daughter was having one of these days, and out of nowhere Sophie, the five year old; started singing a song that goes like this:

If by chance you meet a frown

Do not let it stay

Quickly turn it upside down  

And smile that frown away

I was so impressed by her little spirit for thinking of that song to sing. I am not sure she knows the depth of the message, but what I do know is that we all smiled.

This past July I was at a business conference in Dallas, Texas. If you have ever been there in July then you will understand how HOT and HUMID it is that time of year. So Imagine 10,000 hot sweaty women who have all been traveling, converging on downtown Dallas, can you imagine very many smiles?? If not, then your imagination is completely accurate. I was one of those less than pleasant women. But that changed in an instant. As I was walking through this massive crowd of women, with lots of frowns, someone caught my zombie eye and smiled right at me, and SNAP, I smiled back. In an instant I started looking around and seeing smile after smile after...smile. So you see, I was the one frowning. My perception was flawed, and as soon as someone took the time to look right in my eyes and give me the gift of a smile, my perception changed. My whole outlook changed, I started seeing beauty where I thought there was none. And dangit, I wasn't even as hot and sweaty anymore.

It's important to consciously think about what energy you are putting out, is it good or is it less than desirable. Think about what you could do if you changed one "hot, sweaty, weary travelers" day into one of beauty. For all you know they they'll do the same for someone else? And the cycle will continue and it all started with you, and your smile.