Titled: “Smile for goodness sake!” 

Daily at work we met early in the morning along the corridors running parallel along the car park. A small old lady of maybe late 60s who was contracted to do the morning area cleaning. Her sad eyes would stare at the floor as she mopped the corridors oblivious of whether you’re there or not. Whether you’ve stepped on the newly mopped wet floor. She had afterall being overlooked for her work as a cleaner in the working compound. Most if not all staff would hardly had a glance at her let alone smile or talk to her. It had became a routine and all has got accustomed to the way it is. Perhaps conditioned by the busy schedule.

One day I decided to change the routine, to just slow down and wait for her to look in my direction. As she looked, I smiled. I waited a few more moments for her sad eye to understand that I’m smiling as a form of greetings. This goes on forever I had thought then. No respond. Days went by and still no response. Then a week later, she put up a weak smile. Her eyes spoke without articulating a word and I knew she had said good morning with a nod of her head. A tiny little glimpse of acknowledgement. More of an unsure smile from her. 

Since then, she appeared to be happier each time we met and greeted. Her smile grew and seems to have more energy. Her stride appeared to bounce as she does her work. Life does work in mysterious ways and sometimes doing a simple thing such as changing our facial expression  like putting on a smile do have an impact on our surrounding people. Well, smile more and see the changes in the people you deal with. So smile for goodness sake!

Here’s a clip on smile!