Contagious smiles

Breathe, breathe in the air
Don't be afraid to care
Leave, but don't leave me
Look around
Choose your own ground
Long you live and high you fly
And smiles you'll give and tears you'll cry
And all you touch and all you see
Is all your life will ever be
(from Breathe by Pink Floyd)

The best of lives have a surplus of smiles. The tears you’ll cry are an essential part of the big picture but sharing smiles will wipe them away at least for awhile.

Do these lyrics provide some guidance? I think so, but you need to ponder over the ideas behind the words. Life is not so simple especially as we become adults and struggle to make our way through many obstacles and sad times. Life is simpler when we are very young and naive about problems.

Getting a child to laugh is so rewarding. Often the younger ones’ laughing spreads and those around them laugh or at least break a big smile. The simple fun of knocking over a stack of empty boxes at the library provided our granddaughter laughs. Her picture gives me a smile.

simple laughs and smiles

Two song clips for your enjoyment. First is the Pink Floyd song from their The Dark Side of the Moon album. The song starts quietly and slowly so I started it after the one minute mark (I tried but it doesn't seem to work so slide the control over past the 1 minute mark). The album's songs really should be played sequentially.

The second song is a cover of "Smile" which I learned goes back to Charlie Chaplin. I discovered this cover by Trinidad "Trini" López III on Ms. Scarlet's blog, Wonky Words.