A Smile Worthy Moment!

A Smile Worthy Moment!

 It was a typical morning as I grabbed a granola bar and headed out the door to work a few days ago.  My car seemed to be in auto pilot as I drove my usual route to the hospital where I’m a nurse on a woman’s floor.  I was juggling the load in my arms to free up a finger for the elevator button, when I was greeted with the warm smile of an operating room orderly as he punched it for me.  As the doors opened onto my unit, the kind eyes of our housekeeper met mine and smiled as she uttered a soft hello.  My busy day at work hadn’t even gotten underway, but already it seemed to be a little less daunting due to the gracious gestures of two people who seemed to think I was smile worthy that morning!

When I made rounds on my patients later that morning, I was welcomed by the sleepy smiles of tired, but happy parents as they snuggled their newborns.  Then, during a quick break, I received a picture that my daughter sent me of my oldest granddaughter, Makena…her smile reached out and touched my heart through the phone screen!  That’s when it hit me, I truly am very blessed to experience so many smile worthy moments in my daily routine!  I realize, however, that I need to do better at being more mindful of these moments and the positive impact they have on even my most ordinary days!

Makena couldn’t contain her excitement or her big smile when on a recent day off from her school, she was asked by her sister, Marli’s pre-school teacher to stay and help out! 

Recently, I took on the Happiness Challenge–now I’m challenging myself, as well as anyone else who would would like to join me in taking on a simplified version of this challenge, so to speak, that I’m calling “Smile Worthy Moments”!  I think for the most part, we all try hard to recognize those special, happy times in our lives when we look around and take notice of those things that make us smile or even chuckle a bit–but I want to make a more dedicated effort at being more genuinely aware of those smile inducing moments–and perhaps linger in their enjoyment a little more!

Some Recent Smile Worthy Moments!

♦ Occasionally on my days off, I’ll walk out to the kitchen in the morning to find my husband has fixed us a nice breakfast to enjoy together!

I never really liked hot cereal until my husband made his specialty oatmeal for me–now it’s one of my favorite breakfasts!  Besides who doesn’t smile big when you get to enjoy a meal you don’t have to fix!

♦ Let’s be honest, kids and grandchildren just have a way of making your whole soul smile from the inside-out!

Family relationships often bring on a kaleidoscope of emotions, but they are most definitely the reason for our biggest smiles!  Wearing my leopard coat makes me smile too!  

On our recent “Backyard Campout” with our granddaughters, my husband and I wore those silly grandparent grins on our faces the whole night…especially when we all got in jammies and read stories together inside the tent!  I’m pretty sure we were even smiling in our sleep–the little bit we got!  Ha! 

♦ Seeing our children and their spouses work hard to see their career choices come true is always worthy of big smiles!

Along with his parents and my daughter, my husband and I were indeed smiling when we saw our son-in-law graduate from NYU’s medical school this past year.

I not only smiled, I laughed a little too, when my daughter sent me this picture of Cole at the end of a late night shift as he now embarks on his Emergency Medicine residency…her smile worthy caption read: “Oh, the glamorous life of a doctor!”  I think it’s probably safe to say that whatever our “job” is, most include great things and not so great things about them, but surely they all include things that make us smile on occasion!  

As a nurse, I well understand the long, busy hours of hospital life.  That being said, my littlest patients always inspire heartwarming smiles.     

♦ It’s always wonderful to work hard and accomplish some of our own goals in life, but being able to witness the smiles of others who have accomplished their dreams is awe-inspiring and indeed smile worthy!  

My whole family trained hard to run a half marathon together!  Their tired, but happy smiles say it all; they definitely evoked encouraging smiles from me as I cheered them on from the side lines! 

Last year my youngest daughter, Mandi, trained and fulfilled her dream of running in the New York City Marathon.

There were so many triumphant smiles on countless faces that day, since many who ran, did so to pay tribute to all those affected by the tragedy that took place at the Boston Marathon the previous April.  

♦ Another smile worthy moment for me occurred when I was pleasantly surprised by the delivery of these beautiful fall flowers!

The note accompanying these flowers stated, “Hope you have a big smile kind of day!”  How could it not be a smile worthy moment after being the recipient of this gorgeous bouquet!  I decided to pay the gesture forward, hopefully creating a smile worthy moment for someone else! 

Sharing A Smile Worthy Moment!

I hope you’ll join me on my Smile Worthy sojourn…besides, even if a particular day isn’t the most happy day of your life, it seems there is always something to smile about!  (I’m inclined to believe that more smiles=more happiness!)  I’ll be sharing some of my smile worthy moments from time to time in future posts and sincerely hope you will be inclined to share some of yours here too.  I’ll also put a few smile worthy moments up on my Instagram account @maryjwild1 and on Facebook and Twitter, as well.  I say we all work together and create a wonderful domino effect that should prove to have us all smiling more!           

Be the reason someone smiles today, or even better yet, perhaps you will be the lucky person that smiles because of someone else’s smile worthy gesture! 

–Mary