The other day, I bumped into a coworker on the stairs. Since I recently moved to a different floor, she and I don’t see each other very much. But I smiled just for seeing her, we talked for a couple of minutes and we went on about our days. It was an incident I’m sure many of us have on a daily basis and never really think about…until we’re on the receiving end of the smile.

The next day, I received this from that coworker:

“Hey, thanks for the smile yesterday…
I really appreciate your kindness.”

That made me reconsider the encounter. I didn’t think I’d done anything out of the ordinary – I’d simply smiled and been friendly. And yet, to her, that smile was an act of kindness. A smile. How easy is that?!

Today, I get another email from her with a subject line of “Prize” and this picture (blurred and edited by my choice):

Believe me, being Dawn’s favorite is AMAZING! There’s nothing better than knowing a good, kind, wonderful person thinks of YOU as their favorite for the day. The feeling in-and-of itself is the prize. And I’ve been smiling all day because of it.

The point of sharing this with you? Just a simple reminder.

SMILE!

It’s something easy for everyone to do – just a simple and easy lift of the mouth. But to the recipient, it could turn around their day and make it better. Be the difference you want to see in the world – be friendly and reap the prize of helping someone else.

XO – T.