Finding Reasons To Smile

List three things that make you smile.

I have read that an adult smiles around 40 times in a day, while a child smiles around 400 times. Really makes you wonder, doesn't it?!

I have been thinking for a while about the list of things that make me smile. Why is it taking this long to compile this list!?

Even as I think deeper, I realize that at some point of time in our lives, we, as adults, no longer find things that make us smile, but we find things or events or people or just about any cause to smile. Babies do not need any reason. You just blink at them and they flash their million-dollar smiles. 

Perhaps it is the baby's heart, pure and free of any negativity, or a mind that has not formed any impression of people or things and stays only in the present moment, that makes it easier for the baby to smile without any reason. 

As we grow up, the reasons to smile start diminishing. Worries catch up. Regrets eat up. Before we realize, entire days have gone by and we never smiled even once. 

I cannot think of anything that makes me smile. But I can think of the times when I smile during the day.

Okay, I got one. I smile at my friend with whom I go for a walk in the evening. We usually greet each other with smiles and catch up on the events of the day. It is a soothing and relaxing time for both of us, as, for a short while, we come out of our daily routines and spend some time outdoors.

I smile at my kid when he comes home from school. Of late he has been coming on his own. The transition has been slow and gradual, with me dropping him off to school and picking him up as well, to him running off to school on his own and coming home all by himself. I make it a point to greet him with a smile when he comes home. Children need to know that their parents are always happy to see them!

And that's about it?! Really? Only twice in a day? I need to work on this and soon. 

This journaling prompt sure opened my eyes to something that needs to be changed at the earliest. I need more reasons to smile. The world needs more reasons to smile! 

I hope you have more reasons and occasions to smile than I have. I am eager to read your take on this prompt. Do share your thoughts and let me know if this blog made you smile!