Pass on a Smile

I remember hearing somewhere in your past that studies have shown if you smile at someone, they are then very likely to smile at someone else (be wary of doing this in other countries, the French are actually insulted by being smiled at because to them, you smile only at children...whatever!) Anyway...where was I...

Oh yes, passing on the smile. The same phenomenon has been noted with letting a car out ahead of you in traffic. Come on people, do you really have to get where you are going so fast, that you can't extend courtesy to another driver who is trying to leave the gas station during rush hour traffic! What studies have observed is person A lets person B enter traffic and shortly thereafter person B lets person C enter traffic. And good feelings are abounding here...smiles, waves...relaxed drivers! Sounds like a good situation to me!

So imagine my pleasure when I was reading from one of my favorite poet's books this morning and found she had written on the subject. So here, for your reading pleasure (and don't forget to pass on the smile) is her poem.

A Smile is Never Passe

by
Kathleen Melton Sihlanick

Have you ever stopped and given thought
To the distance a smile can go?
Have you ever seen a face light up
Because your smile made it so?

A smile can travel and change a life,
That's a startling fact.
Doesn't it seem impossible
That one smile could have such impact?

But it's true! You give your smile to someone
Who accepts...passes it on...
And that smile goes on an endless tour,
It becomes a phenomenon.

It chooses its own moment to travel,
Going through every continent and race.
One day you gasp...you recognize its return...
And from a most unlikely face!

It's condition is just as good
As the day you gave it away,
It's still in style...not outmoded...
You see a smile is never passe.

You grasp this gift and you hold it...
A moment only...it cannot with you stay.
This valued and priceless treasure
Is no good...unless given away!