The Power of a Smile

This morning (quite early and still dark) I was headed to Starbucks. OK, some of you will not be able to get over the fact that I DRIVE to Starbucks...I do so there. Anyway, I was driving and it was COLD. The air was a little damp and I had not yet grasped the day yet. Empty of thought and unaware of the beauty of the beginning of the day my eye was drawn to a woman on her bike (remember I said it was cold) and she was headed across Blue Lakes SMILING. I thought "is she really smiling?" And indeed she was. Smiling in the cold, smiling riding bike, smiling in the dark, smiling.
I thought "I'm not smiling." I was not necessarily unhappy nor unsatisfied or even preoccupied. But I had not yet made the decision that she beat me to. She decided to smile long before I did. She had decided this day was great and was happy to be in it. (And no, she did not look loco.)
So, what else was I to do? I smiled too. I wondered how many other people decided to smile when they saw her pearly whites. I wondered how many saw her on that busy road and their day too was confronted with her contagious behavior.
So, I determined that I too would follow in her grinness and be a contagious one of smiling too. So, I began to smile. Driving down the road smiling. And you know what happened? I began to SEE. I saw the beauty of the changing colors, I saw the beauty in the face that handed me my Americano. I saw the beauty in the sky as it began to unfold the day. And I saw my reflection in my rear view mirror and saw my own beauty.
How many people were infected today by that one guilty smiler? I would venture to say many many more than if she had not blessed just me with her grin.
So, take the challenge. Go on. Do it. Grin. I dare you.