“Wisdom”

 (I in no way own this image I fount it on the internet)

“Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of Love” ~Mother Teresa

I have found in life that when meeting people on the street more often than not they appear miserable.  Bound by the problems, cares and worries that surround them constantly.  These worries billow and ooze from them like steam rising from the ashes of a recently extinguished fire.  In life we, can become so consumed by life that we may lose sight of our purpose in life, which is to love each other, help one another, and to greet each other with a smile. Mother Teresa was quite right in saying “…greeting each other with a smile is the beginning of Love”.

Have you noticed that when walking down the boulevard you pass a fore-longed stranger, you in turn welcome them with a warm smile their whole demeanor changes?  I have.

It was the fall of 2010.  I had just begun my bachelors’ degree at college and I was away from home.  Something in that was distasteful to me, I am not one for being away from my loved ones for long periods of time.  I felt as though I was without a friend in the entire world.  I knew no one; I came a lone, and was on a campus literally the size of a large village.  Teachers were gruff, and my fellow classmates wanted nothing to do with the curly-haired girl who lugged about thirty pounds of art supplies on her back everyday.  My first instinct naturally was to jump in my car and drive home.   Until one day I met someone in the campus Library who was a foreign exchange student.  This student though alone himself, had a much better handle on the situation.  He turned to me, and noticing my wish to hide, said with a big smile “Hi, don’t worry, things will look up from here”. He then turned and proceeded to his next class.

Now this little exchange did not lead to love, nor to a life long friendship, but the fact that someone greeted me with a smile and encouraging words when I needed it, was enough.  A smile and a warm salutation can change a person’s whole demeanor and out look at least for one day.  In a world such as this where you hear of murder, suicide, rape, and violence very day in the news it is important to keep a smile on your face, because that smile may just help someone who needs it.  And you never know that smile may just lead to love.

Until next time when we pick up with more literary talk I remain respectfully as always,

Cheyenne E Mitchell