Is a smile still your first instinct when you make eye contact with people?
She was standing in the bright sunlight. Picture-perfect. Peaceful and tranquil. Totally at peace with herself in the barbecue-hot summer sun and the busy traffic, displaying the greatest of smiles that could halt traffic.
The traffic signal anyway was doing just that at steady intervals.
I’m getting late for my meeting and the few seconds of waiting for the red to turn green feels like an eternity. Amidst the hustle and buzzle of the urban environment where patience is a dying art, urgency is one’s assured companion.
The first time I saw her, the full stretch of this area was fenced with blank boards. Some trigger-happy graffiti artist had spray-painted just this one board with a smiling face and thus was born our champion.
Later, when it was time for the boards to be removed, someone evidently with a sense of humour let just this one remain. With the new-found solitary status, she simply couldn’t go unseen.
City life can often be too hectic and exhausting. Yet, we are often blessed with small pleasures and asides, like this lowly orphaned graffiti smiley that provides us a quick respite from the monotony or the pressure that a city-dweller necessarily alternates between.
Once upon a time, Graffiti had a bad name. Now more than ever, it’s becoming an art worth appreciating like this modest graffiti smiley, as it effortlessly takes on the aura of an admired icon of peace and happiness.
Someone once said – a smile is a happiness you can find right under your nose! Wouldn’t it be great if you and I showed the world around us how well we can curl our lips into the most beautiful expression in the world?
“Because of your smile, you make life more beautiful.”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
Gratitude paints little smiley faces on everything it touches.
Richelle E. Goodrich
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