Dear LPG,

Do you recognise the picture above? 

What is it they say?  Well lots really but today I am focussing on that age-old phrase that my mother used to come up with every time she could see that look that showed me to be upset, miserable, downcast or dejected.  She would tell me to ‘turn my frown upside-down’ so that it would become a smile.  

While looking around a week or so ago I learned that today is ‘World Smile Day’.  It has been around since 1999 and was inspired by American artist, Harvey Ball’s creation of the world-recognisable smiley face symbol.  He introduced us to it way back in 1963, although it took another 36 years for the yellow, round smiley face to be recognised as the visual element of this celebratory day.

So, I strongly suggest that any reader who is feeling a little negative and who has stumbled upon my message today, is guided by the significance of the day and talks themselves into a better mood, while the rest of us observe the accepted ways of celebrating…

I have read on one website that officially, today is less about having a party, and more about making the effort to provoke at least one person you come across to feel the need to smile.  Sometimes the opportunity to commit a random act of Kindness presents itself when you least expect it.   Picking up something someone has dropped for them, offering a random compliment to someone or making a telephone call to that person who you know will keep you talking for a lot longer than you really want to, could make all the difference to someone’s life.   I have always found that just offering a genuine smile to someone who is walking in the opposite direction to you as you pass them in the street works, although smiling with your eyes from behind a mask might be more complicated.  Smiling with your eyes demands more effort than just lifting the corners of your mouth but even behind a mask that is where you have to start…

So please, if you need to, today is the day to practice, and if you keep it up each day for the rest of this year, you will be a much ‘smilier’ person by the time we get to October 2021.

BJ, Lewisham

BJ shares some of her internet findings on this subject…

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… and offers this list just in case you are stuck for inspiration when it comes to random acts of kindness….

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