Smile

May is over half way over.  I have been 2 1/2 weeks without having to wear my huge white mask everywhere. I am still careful of people with obvious illness but it has sure been nice to know people can see me smiling. Have you ever just looked at people where ever you go and see how many are smiling?  Not many. I am so blessed and every day that I am alive I enjoy the little things.   I can't help but smile.

It reminds me of when Dave and I went to Australia to pick up Eric.  We paid for an excursion to go on a yacht and go snorkling on the Great Barrier reef.  We were excited and when we showed up in the morning to board our boat, we found out that we had been upgraded to a larger yacht at not extra cost.  The three of us boarded and we extremely happy and ready for our experience.  As the yacht sailed along, I couldn't help but start giggling.  I leaned over to Eric and said, look at the expressions on all of these rich people's faces.  The three of us were literally the only ones smiling. Eric and I chuckled about that for quite awhile. It probably made the others on the boat wonder what in the world we were chuckling about.

I have much to smile about.  Today, almost one year out from my stem cell transplant I have people who say they are still praying for me.  I had a woman I hardly know come up and give me a hug.  You can never have too many prayers or hugs.  I continue to learn each day about the goodness of people and how to serve others better. I remember my Mother taught me, "if you are discouraged or depressed, get busy and work and do something for someone else." My Mother had 3 open heart surgeries. She died during the third.  She dealt with poor health alot of her life and yet most of my memories of her are of her making or doing things for others.

I believe we all have something to smile about, if we don't feel like smiling...go do something for someone and then a smile will definitely come.