Still Smiling

I’m still smiling this morning…seeing the sunrise over the sea …enjoying the blueness of the sky, the greenness of the grass, the reds, yellows, oranges and browns of autumn leaves.

People smiled and said, ‘Hello’… appreciating chance meetings with family and friends… good people facing difficult times with strength, courage and a smile.

I read of 95-year-old Rita. After months in lockdown, isolated in a care home, her family decided that she should spend her final weeks at home. I smiled. It sounded like a carefully planned kidnap. Her belongings were bundled into a car; initially confused, she was wheeled into a waiting ambulance…

That was in September. She recently died, surrounded by those who loved her. A family member said that Rita had a ‘perfect death’. I smiled.

Musing this morning on ‘…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion…’ (Philippians 1:6)

I smiled… looking back on good things, enjoyable experiences… those who have been kind to us, taught us valuable lessons, walked with us in green pastures and dark valleys…

I smiled… musing on good things I enjoy now – family, friends, health, today… I smiled …thinking of a loving Father-God who gives me confidence as I face an unknown future.

The old Spike Milligan poem seems particularly appropriate:
Smiling is infectious,
you catch it like the flu,
When someone smiled at me today,
I started smiling too.

I passed around the corner
and someone saw my grin.
When he smiled I realized
I’d passed it on to him.

I thought about that smile,
then I realized its worth.
A single smile, just like mine
could travel round the earth.

So, if you feel a smile begin,
don’t leave it undetected.
Let’s start an epidemic quick,
and get the world infected!

…I smiled: I’ve never seen St Paul linked to Spike Milligan.