Finding Your Smile

It's a bit rare to see the Queen of England in a full laughing smile. Obviously, she does laugh on occasion. I've always admired the Queen. I believe she is a strong and duty bound woman. She didn't wish to be the queen, just as her father hadn't wanted to be king. She loved her father very much, but felt that he wasn't a strong man. Elizabeth would do her duty to the best of her abilities and does until this very day. I've often thought of how incredibly difficult that duty must've often been. How many heartaches, disappointments and very hard decisions she had to face. The fact is, not station or wealth or beauty or intelligence, nothing makes us humans immune to life's troubles.

I certainly qualify as human. I can celebrate my unhappiness about life's zingers with the best of them, hold myself the biggest pity party. The kind where you sip from the cup of sadness, dance on the table of defeat and wake up with a hellava hangover.  My oldest friend is struggling through a terrible illness, the season at the summer cabin that I love is over, the children that I love have problems and heartaches, the hubby and I are getting old and have the short term memories of gnats...it's just not frickin' fair.  I taught my children that life is not fair but that was for them, not me...wasn't it?

Some of life's aggravations are just that, miniscule and some are humongous tragedies. I have a problem, however, with people that just refuse to and can't find their smile. The world is funny, you have to admit. There are the delightful children, the animals and the just plain goofiness of people. Even in the gravest and most serious situation, it's hard not to laugh when someone stumps their toe.

One of the things that I do when I'm down is read quotes. It always eventually makes me smile to read what other people do and say to combat the sad and unpleasant things in their lives. I really appreciated the faded copy of a quote on my mother-in-law's bathroom wall...it was so her and it was funny. One day as I sat all sad and weary, a little voice came to me and said Cheer up, things could be worse. So I did, I cheered up and things got worse.

Charles Shultz quoted that he vowed to only dread one day at a time...poor old Charlie Brown. If it wasn't for bad luck he would have none at all. He certainly must've helped his creator find his smile.   W.C. Fields said, I cook with wine. Sometimes I even put some in the food.  Makes me laugh and reminds me of when a dear friend and I get together to cook a shared supper.

It's very important to never stop searching for your smile.  A day without a single one is indeed a bad day.  Those days do happen, they are there. Don't let such a day be because you just didn't look hard enough for even one small piece of joy. 

They might not need me; but they might. I'll let my head be just in sight; a smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.-----Emily Dickinson