Smile - It does a body good

Once again it is dark and raining outside. Thunder and lightening flash overhead as I sit beneath the florescent lights still wanting to crawl back into bed. Despite all this, I am going to believe today will be better than yesterday because I want to. I want to say thank you to everyone who left encouraging words yesterday - it was much appreciated.

It has got me to thinking though, at all the little ways simple things touch and brighten our lives.

Mail -I am an Internet junkie. I live by instant communications - email, instant messaging, tweeting, texting etc. My family communicates most often in this method, but at heart I am a snail mail kind of girl. Rarely are there days when I go to the mail box and see a hand written note that has been postage stamped in my box, usually it's the notes that say "You've won..." or "You've been pre-approved" or "Please pay..." - you know, the typical mail. But on those rare occasions I get those cards or "just thinking of you notes" my day seems a bit brighter.

Just Us - The hub and I are fairly geeky (he more than I) but it is this shared love of geekiness that has given us something just ours. We have spent so much of out time in front of a computer for so long that we often think differently. We don't just see numbers and letters in their original definition...we see letters made out of numbers, we see words in symbols, we see meaning in code. One of the things the hub started doing a few years ago was leaving little notes that were comprised of 143. The first time I saw this I thought, hum, one hundred and forty-three...what does he mean? I thought about it and it took a bit, but I understood. 143 = I love you (the number of letters per word.) He's done this for many years now and it still brings a smile to my face when I see them at the end of an email or in a random text message or just on a sticky note left somewhere for me to find.

Random Acts of Kindness - I hear these stories and sometimes I get to experience these stories first hand. I'm talking about the random acts of kindness like paying the toll for the person behind you, buying a cup of coffee for the person who looks like they've had one of those days(weeks), or giving someone some roadside assistance when it looks like they can't do it for themselves. These stories fill the web-ways, but how often does this really happen? In today's society...I at least, am a little leery of strangers and wonder what they want in return.

For example, my crazy neighbor is always trying to get near our house to take a peak inside. (She once lived in our house years ago) Anyhow, we tried to start off on the right foot, but a few incidents later we dubbed her the crazy lady and usually we interact very little. This summer she planted a garden which was full of veggies. The great tomato outbreak occurred and she saw an opportunity to 'sell' her home grown tomatoes to passersby. A few days later, I thought about stopping by to purchase some, but got busy and forgot. A little later that evening, I heard a knock on the door and what did I have, but a bag of tomatoes. I have to admit these were some very yummy tomatoes. About 2 weeks later my daughter comes in the house with a basket full of tomatoes and peppers and such from the neighbor. Well there was more than we could eat and I didn't want them to go bad so I decided to make a batch of salsa (we eat this stuff year round.) Because the neighbor had been so gracious with her veggies I sent a jar back to her house with the basket. She loved it and asked if I could make her a BIG batch. Now, I didn't have to share, but I did. There is just something about a homemade pie, cake, jar of jam, jar of salsa or whatever that says I was thinking about you.

Perhaps it was how I was raised - my mother was a homemaker and we regularly 'shared' with neighbors and strangers alike. It was never something that was expected but it was always appreciated. I wonder if the world would be a different place if more people thought that way?

What are the special things that make you smile?

BTW: My friend is hosting a Venus Embrace give away over at JandJacres. Be sure to stop by!!