*NOTE*
This story was written by my grandma NOT me, all I have done is given her work a title, and some small grammar corrections. Enjoy.
My husband looked up from his book and offered me a penny for my thoughts. I generally sell them to him.
“Sorry,” I grinned.
“No sale, I haven’t finished them yet,” and went back into thought.
I was thinking about what I could do for the world situation, but nothing came to mind. So I gave some thought to what the world needed, and came up with love, trust, understanding, and patience. Fine, I had my idea, but how could I go out and pass all that off on the world? I knew those ingredients worked for making the six people in my house happy, but we weren’t always that way.
It took me a long time to realize that my mood set off reactions in everyone. I noticed it first with my youngest daughter who was in kindergarden. She went to school in the mornings and was home in the afternoons. Some days she was a pleasure and some days she whined and was disagreeable to everything I suggested. I gave it some thought and realized it started when she walked through the front door. It was all in my greeting. If I scolded her for being late or for some other infraction of my rules it was going to be a bad day. She could sense my black mood and it took all the joy out of her. If i met her at the door first with a loving smile and bright “Hi, how was your day,” and then nicely reminded her of the importance of coming straight home, that would set the tone for the day.
The older children’s moods worked the same way. If they had some problem and came to me I wouldn’t always respond or really listen and they would take their anger and frustrations out on each other. This would get me into it. If I came at them in anger it did not solve a thing, their moods would still be bad. When I took the time to listen and spoke calmly peace was restored. I cam to realize that a smile was a major part in all the coming around to harmony. It was on my face with a conscious effort at first, but it became natural after a while. I mad a promise to myself to get a good sincere, loving smile rom everyone in our house at least once a day. I knew everyone had one because every now and then they subjected me to it. The smile didn’t necessarily come with words, but sometimes a few kind words were a help. I made a smile calendar with everyone’s name across the top and the days down the side. When I got the smile that counted, I stuck a star under their name. Some days i really had to talk myself into it, but it came easy when it started to have an affect on everyone’s behaviour towards each other. For with that smile comes love, and from that love comes trust, from that trust comes understanding, and that understanding is followed by patience.
Dare I take that penny and tell my husband,
“I’m going to save the world with a smile calendar?”
Written by Norma Lorenti approximately in the 1970’s.
NormasGarden 