Thursday, 6/27

It's amazing how one word can brighten your day.

I had a great time yesterday on my half day, thanks for asking. I mean, it's been a very long, very cold spring, and we deserve the warmth of the past few days. Now, you'd think just the fact that I went to the beach would be enough to put a smile on my face (and trust me, it was), but when I was down there yesterday and saw a particular word written on the sidewalk; well, that smile grows by a couple of teeth.

If only because that word was, indeed, "smile".

You see, someone had written the word "smile" and drawn a smiley face next to it on the bike path right near the McCarty's Cove lilac trees. I first saw it Monday, on mile 3 of a 4-mile run, and let me tell you--coming across that word when you're huffing and puffing actually DOES put a smile on your face, and gives you an extra boost to finish that last mile (especially when you're a masochist and you know that last mile ends with you running up the Front Street hill from Founder's Landing to the Landmark Inn.). Both Monday and than again yesterday, I saw that the word, and automatically, without even thinking, did what it said.

And I know I'm not the only one, either. I've heard several people walking ahead of or behind me comment on that one word written on the bike path. I'm sure they have the same reaction I have, and, like me, probably have it without even thinking. Such is, I guess, the power of one word.

Such is the power of THAT word.

So to whoever wrote that one word on the bike path, just let me say "thanks". You'd be amazed to find out how many smiles you've put on faces of people you've never met. And with the way things are going on our world these days, to perform a feat like that is an amazing thing.

Heck—it might even put a, ahem, smile on your face.

8-)

(jim@wmqt.com)

(ps--speaking of putting a smile on your face, look what I saw when I came home from work last night!)