The Gift, the Grin, and the Walker!

The lady I passed on my walk this morning smiled at me. I know, you’re thinking, “Whoa, Ellen, you are writing strong now!” Hear me out. She SMILED at me. I’ve been working on her for ninety days, normally it doesn’t take 90 seconds to get a smile back, and people are usually incapable of resisting it! It’s part of my charm.

See, I have what is known as a million dollar smile – nothing I can take credit for, we thank genetics and my Creator, the Great Celestial Orthodontist; I was born with good gums and straight teeth with no obvious imperfections.

I learned early on my smile could work wonders; it tames lions, soothes savage beasts, and sometimes gets me my way. It has gotten me in a lot of trouble and out of a lot of jambs, but few have ever outright resisted it. Except, “The Walker”.

This woman, you can tell, is a force to be reckoned with. She has a mean stride, I’m surprised there isn’t smoke trailing behind her. She uses those walking poles, you know, the kind that amp up your speed? She is awesome! She’s got a couple of decades on me and leaves me in the dust. I’ve learned to deliberately walk the opposite direction she’s headed so I don’t get disheartened when she whizzes past me.

So, since April, every time she comes my way I flash her a smile. At first it was just the grin, head nod, acknowledgement thing. She ignored me. Since then I have steadily upped the smile wattage. Still nothing. Now I’m up to at least $900,000 worth of my proverbial million dollars, and -- nothing. Nada. Zip. No response.

Finally, I stopped trying. And then I felt guilty every time I passed her and didn’t smile.

I know. I’m a head case.

Recently, I started smiling at her. Not to get her to smile back, but just because I’ve found it’s so much easier to smile than to not to. And, today, she smiled back. A big old teeth-showing number. It was great to see. We both smiled broadly and laughed.

The object lesson here? The one with the gift is responsible for using it. Shame on me for ever withholding one megawatt of its power.

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So? What say you? What gift have you been withholding? Hmmmm?

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