Small and Simple Things
A few months ago I was having a bad day. I was at the grocery store, grumpy, feeling like a jerk cause of something I said earlier, and just really down in the dumps. I was deep in thought mentally beating myself up when I glanced up. A lady walking down the aisle looked at me, and she smiled. Not a sympathetic, “what is going on with HER” smile. Not a polite smile. Not a “wow, she looks stressed but I just need to get past her to the cereal and I don’t want to make this awkward” smile. It was a warm, kind smile. So much so that my first thought was, “Does she know me?” But I’d never seen her before. I don’t know why she smiled at me. I mean, she could probably tell I was about to burst into tears at any moment, so there’s that. But in that split second that she went out of her way to smile at me, I immediately felt lifted. It was simple. But I felt genuine love and goodness from a stranger. I think a lot of us often feel we are not enough, that our tiny efforts don’t matter, that we c...