They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  A smile is triple that.

The other day while going about town, I met an older gentleman hunched over a street corner looking depressed.  As I approached him, he slowly extended his hand towards me, and asked for a quarter.  My mind screamed, “Urrgh get a job!”, whilst my heart wondered, “Why is he homeless?”.  I was torn as to how to react. Ignoring him was not an option.  I chose to go with the latter option, thankfully.  Smiling, I greeted him and kindly told him I did not have change to spare.  He smiled back and told me “I appreciate you talking to me, people just ignore and turn their backs on me, and your smile made my day”.  His words made me think the importance of leaving a positive aura behind, with the people we come into contact with.

Two words visibly rang in my ears from his statement; ‘ignore’ and ‘smile’.I learnt one of two things. The first, ignorance is a negative state of mind. It disillusions us from peeling the outer layer and getting to the core. In my case, if I chose to ignore him by assuming that he was looking for an easy hand out, I would have not gotten to the point of asking myself  “Why is he homeless?”.  Secondly, a smile is the most expensive gift to man. It is priceless and timeless.

~Let positive vibes vibrate and flow through your veins~