random things

A smile freely given.

Posted on by Norah

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}

adult beverage black coffee breakfast

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The unsmiling smile.

Posted on by Norah

Growing up she was told about the 3 smiles.  For the public and persons unknown there is the smile from the mouth, the simple upturning of lips, it is easy anyone can all do it with requiring nothing in return. The I see you smile is in the eyes, this is a little deeper a little harder to share. It shares the inner delight and wonder of things offering a personal connection. The last smile is the hardest, this is your hearts smile, this smile shares your soul, it glows and sings, it warms you from the inside out, this smile can be found in a hug or meeting of hearts. She loved this smile, it felt the very best.

Days flowed into years and she grew up, moved away and on a pleasant afternoon while sitting quietly watching the world go past people smiling and not stopping, not touching, not knowing those around them, rushing through a life filled with reasons to smile. And it dawned on her, she was smiling too, just like them, just the upturned lips.  And her heart cried! Why had no one warned her? Did they know that this could happen? how did you find your hearts smile again and how did you not know you had lost it? Did anyone else know that under all the smiles there were none? Was she the only one?

{a short story}

woman in clear gemstone studded lipstick

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The wolf that wasn’t what she thought…

Posted on by Norah

snow nature trees mountain

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We have all heard the story of the little boy that cried wolf, well long story short he was a lier and got eaten, feel free to go read it for yourself… ” The Boy that Cried Wolf”, in that story the author deals with the lies we tell others and the consequences thereof. But what if that wolf never came? What if this wolf is the lies we tell ourselves? What if this wolf no one else will ever see? What if this wolf is mistaken for something else?  oooh all the what if’s, but, seriously, just what if?…

This little girl grew up only hearing about the wolves, and these wolves got bigger and meaner with each telling and they were out to get her. At the deepest part of the night, they will come howling out of the winter dark forest looking for, well, her. But she must never scream, cry or talk about the wolves unless they were actually there,  so every night after the lights went out she would huddle under the blankets listening for the wolves and each night she would be sure that this time she had heard them, this time they would get in, this time.  This went on day by day, week by week, year in year out she would wake up with the half-remembered sound of phantom howls echoing in her ears thinking to herself that maybe this time it was that wolf she heard.

The thing is,  no one told her it was just a story. No one said its purpose was to teach and not just scare the kids on a dark night. No one told her there are no real wolves left. And so when her time was up and her allotted years came to a close, in that final stilness before dawn she realized that the wolves she had heard were hers. Her internal unshared truths about who she was. She never had anything to be afraid of but herself.

[a short story]

 

The day she fell in love… with herself.

Posted on by Norah

astronomy constellation cosmos dark

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It was a dark and stormy night…. just kidding it was a stunningly clear and chill evening when she for the first time in over 2 decades lay down to look up at the stars all the bands of white splattering the night sky with sparkling twinkling indifferent lights and somewhere in her heart a crack started, it was not the same, this was peaceful, this was innocence returned, oh this was good!  For the first time since the night so many years ago that thing that had caused her eyes to drop, to never linger too long, to not look up in wonder of the universe, that thing, was not even a memory anymore in fact the thing had not made its insidious little way into her heart till just then, and wonder of wonder it did not hurt, it left no shame it curled up powerless and slid away in the revelation she was not that person anymore. She put her arms around herself and finally said it, I love you.

And in the peace of a rekindled love of the boundless sky she celebrated that she was loved, most of all by herself, the imperfect, tempestuous, loving, giving, broken soul that had found that gold now held her cracks together, Never to be the same again but that is okay, the adventure has begun, with hope, joy and knowing that she is who she is and that is enough.

[a short story]