Why Don’t We Smile? #MondayMusings
My phone beeped. It was a text from my sister cribbing about something. A smile touched my lips as I remembered the time when I was her age and wanted to grow up and be an independent girl. (The thing that I’m now one but want to be that little girl again, is a wish that can’t be fulfilled now.) So, the smile. It hurt when my smile broadened. Then I realized that since morning it was the first time I was smiling with all of my heart. I wondered if nothing had happened to make me smile a bit. I went through the events of the day. There have been a few jokes worth laughing that had been forwarded in the WhatsApp groups but none of them managed to pull me out of my bad day mood and make me smile. Surely, the events qualified the day to be categorized as not-a-good-day, but was it that bad?
Just when I had started wondering on the philosophical note, an year-old niece of mine came crawling near me. With her actions and blabbering I knew she wanted me to leave the gadgets aside and come play with her. I resigned to her commands almost immediately. Her contagious smile was soon spread across my face. All the worries of the day been wiped of within minutes. At that moment, my smile was completely pure and innocent just like hers, unlike forced as usual. Within few minutes she forgot that she had called me to play with her and got busy with herself, enjoying the gala time of her childhood with no worries of her own. How I wished for the days like these!
This brings me back to our lack of smiles. We are so caught up in our thoughts every time, weighing every decision, calculating every move that in between all this we fail to notice the frown that has slowly replaced the beautiful smile that used to reside on our face once. We are so engrossed in ourselves that slowly smiles are fading away from our lives. It requires an effort to put up one when required. Why isn’t it genuine any more? We read a joke and type a laughing smiley and hit send without even smiling for a second. But that’s not how it’s meant to be, is it? For the people like us who call themselves adults, are struggling with almost everything in their lives; and to add to it, a smile a day seems to be a struggle too.
Just pause a little and think why? Why can’t we wake up and welcome the day with a smile? Why can’t we smile when we walk to office? (I know this word in itself is enough to vanish all the smiles 😛 ) Why can’t we smile to our fellow daily commuters? Why can’t we smile when we say our loved ones goodnight? Why do we need someone to make us smile? Why can’t we just smile to our-self, for ourselves? Why can’t we smile a little more than yesterday? Why can’t we smile a little more often, a little more carelessly? Why had everything become so automated? In this world of technology, are we already robots?
Come Let’s pledge,
Each morning and each night,
To keep that Smile,
Throughout the day,
Holding it tight.
To every person we see,
With love in our eyes
We will smile,
Whether it’s you and me.
With each Smile,
Added to the world,
Sadness will Fade.
Every once in a while!
Do you also feel that Smiles are slowly disappearing? Do you smile as often as you would want to?
Linking this with #MondayMusings at Write Tribe
🙂 I smile almost all the time and make it a point to smile at everyone, too. Perhaps technology has taken over lives so much that people are too busy texting and typing, subconsciously making them forget to smile. We need to spend more time away from our gadgets. Babies? The best company! A lesson in mindfulness. Great to have you join in for MondayMusings, Nibha!
I suppose ‘smiles’ are being replaced by emoticons and stickers – but they can’t truly say if we’re smiling or not, can they?
I try and smile as often as I can. Sometimes even at strangers – of course, they give me that look; but hey, at least it got them to look up from their phone 🙂
It’s true we send emoticons without smiling. I will try to smile more often and confess that I lost it over the years!! Thanks for reminding with this endearing post.
sometimes I really cannot figure what people mean when they send 😛 emoticon when there is a happy news.. I think one of the best compliments I have received so far, is “Your smile reaches your eyes every time”
I smile, a lot…I make it a point to greet people (freinds & strangers alike) with a smile…..it definitely is a positive thing in my life. As for technology taking over our lives, the quantum of control is dependent on how much we allow it to take over.