“I love it when a small, unexpected happening makes me smile…”
I do not consider myself a cheerful person. I love to be cheerful, and I love to laugh. I love when it makes my ribs hurt, and I love when a small, unexpected happening makes me smile. I am capable of happiness, joy, warmth, cheer and exuberance. However, continuous, uninitiated cheer is something I struggle at.
Walking home today I found a small ruby heart on the ground. It is Thursday. The irony to me is, last week I began participating in Shutter Sister’s Love Thursday. I have always been slightly skeptical of the “find a heart in your daily life” thing, because it seems a bit corny. I’d love to look for love, but really – do I have to find heart shapes? Then, today, there is a small heart on my path. I felt corny picking it up.
A smiling, corny girl in a red riding-hood jacket, purchased in a second-hand clothing shop, two hours before I would meet my future husband. I thought to myself, “Well how about that…”
…I am still feeling the high coming from a short conversation that I had at a gas station yesterday, with a mentally handicapped man who pumped my gas. The way I felt; I pulled back from him – (“people round here don’t chat; I’ve grown accustomed to my little shell; what would be the point…”) – and then the real me stepped back up to the plate and opened up. He was wily and clever, and he had me laughing within moments. He had a big, goofy smile. I drove away waving to him, winking because we both had seen his next customer’s license plate – and I now knew how he felt about those customers.
I wonder if perhaps that conversation is what gave me the strength to choose to be cheerful this afternoon.
An extract from “Love Thursday” by Jessica Brogan-Maier: an American freelance writer living in Switzerland. First published on “In Search of Dessert”
Kindly contributed to Zen Moments by the author.
Karen from Shutter Sisters commented: “What a lovely find. And I think your story sort of captures the point: it’s not that you should go looking for hearts (which, I agree with you, is a bit hokey), but that when you see a message, or a sign of love, however small or trivial, you should take a moment and notice it. I love that you noticed this one.”
Taking Flight: Inspiration And Techniques To Give Your Creative Spirit Wings
By Kelly Rae Roberts
Average customer review: 
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- Plenty of eye candy–pages and pages of the author’s endearing artwork, along with the varied works of the contributors.” Amazon Books
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