Smile

I should smile more.

If you never notice how a smile could melt away human barriers such as doubts, hostility, fears and other negative feelings.

There's this young Indonesian cleaning lady working in my office building, she is most pleasant looking cleaner I have ever come across, she smiles all the time. She wears lip color and a head wrap and she smiles at me every time I see her. Her face is so touchingly genuine that I feel I have to tell you about this, or about her.

I'm not exactly the most pleasant face in a lift if you meet in a lift. I guess sometimes I look like someone owes me money but from now on I shall try be as pleasant as I can.

There were times when I got annoyed at the way my fellow lift passengers looked at me, I would take my gaze off the lift panel or the floor and stare straight in their faces defiantly. Mostly they turned away quickly and keep quiet, but once this lady immediately broke into a friendly smile and that, that smile melt my annoyance away quickly and I smiled back.

You see, a smile is a quick fix for situation like that. Smiles turn enemies into friends.

These days, especially since I moved out from the family house I've learned to smile at men more, those in certain special positions, ie. the security guards, car park attendants, toll officers, mechanics, waiters...those men I count on to get things done, to get favours from, etc.

A smile always work, I smile at them today so that if I need from them next week, they will remember that I was the friendly who smiled at them. I smile at the waiter sweetly when I order so that if the kitchen screwed up my dish I can send it back to the waiter I smiled at.

Girl power.

Coming back to cleaning ladies, I really like the fact that sometimes you'd find a few who would smile at you. It's a selfish thing, when I see an old cleaning lady who smiles quite happily at me I'll have a good day; a old and frail looking cleaning lady always leave me in a depressed mood. I wonder who are her family and whether she have any children...all that guilt starts to stir.

But a smiling old cleaning lady just make all the difference. You'd assume that she is doing ok because she smiled.

So is it wrong to say that smiling makes the world a better place to live in?