A smile freely given.

Every once in a while someone will pass through your life, a chance meeting, a glance across a room just the briefest meeting of eyes. In some instances, they never even know you saw them. It is not that first love meeting, there is nothing sexual in it, it is not even a crush it is simply a touching of souls as they pass by leaving you just a little in love with them.

It was an unremarkable day in an unremarkable month of an unremarkable year when something remarkable happened. I am sitting in my favorite coffee shop doing some work it was its usual quiet mellow vibe everyone minding their own business. Then I notice a sound of cheerful greetings and the room suddenly felt brighter. I look up to see what has happened when I see ‘her’… Good grief that smile! It lights up her whole being and everyone gets one, what is that? No one smiles at strangers anymore! The people’s reactions were even more interesting, they smile back, the staff are almost glowing at having someone see them and say thank you with a smile. I find myself smiling at the scene and even after having finished up and leaving for the day I find at random moment my heart soring at the memory of her smile. She was fascinating.

Today I might learn her name and have the courage to say hello. I am young and somewhat socially awkward never knowing how to connect with people but with her, I would like to try. But in real life, I don’t know how to do that. We are strangers, and yet in my world of online and digital friendships were human interaction in rare I find I would like her as a friend. Then there she is and I want to go over and just hug her and tell her that I am happier by just seeing her. But I am a guy, and a young one at that, you do not just walk up to women you do not know and tell them that they have made your day brighter just by being. Over the weeks I learned that she was often there, always with a smile a kind word time to listen even to complete strangers. It was like she knew that the world was a dark place and her smile freely given with a bit of kindness could help lighten it a little for someone else. I fell in love with her then, just a little. But I knew that once I left I would never see her again.

I still think of her, my smiling lady when the dullness of the world feels like it pressing in too much. The memory is softer now as with the passing of years but the smile that came from a heart of boundless love and compassion shines as bright in my soul today as the day I first saw it. In a world that can take so much, she gave a little something of herself back, that small piece that only she could give to brighten a life. And so when I feel the dullness of the rat race setting in I think of her and the way she lit up a room and smile at the memory.

A young woman is sitting on a train, the older man sitting across from her suddenly smiles a joy-filled light bringing kind of smile that lifts her heart to see…

{a short short story}