Rocks and drivel...

Sometimes trying to make things happen is like trying to get a rock to smile. Thinking about it - sometimes it’s probably easier to make a rock smile.

I used to think of myself as a rock. No, not the hard type; the solid type. Good (almost always) dependable old me. You could always rely on good old dependable me to deliver what was required. People knew that (despite my sometimes unpredictable reactions and even more hard to gauge responses) no matter what I had to do, how early or late I had to do it, the cost to me personally. I would get it done.

Sometimes though, I had to become a rock to do it and sometimes it was hard to make me smile. Oh, I could laugh, (ha-ha!) but smiling was another matter.

Smiling is a wonderful thing. It lifts your spirits and it lifts the spirits of those around you. I love people who smile; not those false smiles we all know, but the real ones. The ones that make you feel liked, loved, cared for, respected... I won’t go on. I could probably extend the list forever, and I think you’ve probably got the message.

I was driving this morning and pulled in to let somebody pass in an overcrowded road. I do it a lot and sometimes don’t even get a nod or a wave, but then sometimes I don’t give a nod or wave when others do it for me. Sometimes, lost in my own thoughts, getting things done, being a rock, I don’t even notice that they've pulled in. Anyway, as this person in the other car (a pleasant faced, middle aged woman) passed me she looked at me directly and her face lit up with the most brilliant smile. Not just her mouth and lips, but her eyes and nose, her chin and ears, even her hair seemed to smile at me.

For a moment I didn’t know what to do – and then, because I had no choice, I smiled back. It hurt a little, I even gave her a bit of a wave.

Maybe rocks can be made to smile after all.