Inspiration

How Long Can You Smile?

How long can you smile?

Can you consciously keep a smile for a day? for an hour? for 3 minutes?

I’ve tried this, and it does take effort.

Even consciously returning a gaze with a smile.

There are those rare people who always seem to have a smile – they actually always seem happy.

At the supermarket, anywhere where there are strangers, it is kind of fun and interesting to hunt for visually happy people.

The Unexpected Surprise

I remember going into a garden shop and being happily surprised to see a huge parrot in a great cage. It was so unexpected. To see a parrot by itself would be a surprise, but to see it in a place where it usually wasn’t, made it shine even the better.

A similar thing happened when we visited a paper store that sells gift boxes, tissue paper, cake boxes, and so on. In the back, in a fenced in area, was an emu, you know, an ostrich – actually a pair of them. It’s like seeing a dandelion growing in a sidewalk crack.

A Glittery World

Inspired by visiting Tickled Pink in Seymour CT (www.tickledpinkshoppe.com) .

In the local valley, with a backdrop of towering mountains and clear lakes, there is a small boutique nestled among rows of antique dealers. To me, this is more than a store. When one steps inside it, it is like being transported to a place of wonder and beauty.

Tickled Pink offers a magical, ambient setting that truly makes one forget daily concerns. It is like its own world, an enchanting, compelling, truly breathtaking realm.

King of the Hay

Everyone has certain special things that make them smile. For me, one of those things is being around goats.

I remember one of the times my parents and I went to a local farm that we visit frequently. That particular day there were 2 baby goats, so small they could barely walk, their little legs wobbly, and their tiny voices high-pitched. One baby goat was shy, afraid, seeking shelter near his mother. But the other baby goat wanted to experience everything the world had to offer.

Looking Deeper

When our children were young, and we would go to a restaurant, we’d make pepper drawings while waiting for our food.

We would turn over the paper placemat, revealing a nice white piece of paper, and shake some pepper randomly on the paper. Then we would take turns connecting the dots.

It’s like the pepper held the essence of a picture that we slowly revealed to ourselves. They really enjoyed this, and so did I.

There’s just enough structure to prod you on, but ultimately, it is your own imagination that creates the picture. It’s really fun to see what emerges.

Finding Fairy Wings

My daughter came running in the house, saying that she found fairy wings. She really wanted us to see, too.

Yes, there were 2 identical wings, silver, white, delicate – about the size of a young child’s finger. These wings could easily belong to a fairy.

I want to believe in fairy wings, and dogs that talk with their eyes – that there is a layer of enchantment cast everywhere, waiting to be discovered.

Lit

There is something really special about a candle flame.

It feels alive. It actually glows.

I like to eat dinner with a candle. There’s a moodiness that just seems so right, like we’re in a higher presence.

I tried an interesting meditation practice. I stare at a candle as long as possible without blinking, and then close my eyes. I was surprised to see the yellow flame, with my eyes closed, turn into a deep purple box. It was so clear. It was amazing.

Does God send balloons?

“Tie a yellow ribbon.”

I remember there was a time in my life when I had to let something go that was just - oh, I didn’t want to let it go. It was a person, and I prayed and I asked God to help me let go, and I went to this event where there were balloons, and we were out in the meadow, and I said, “You know what, they said to place your cares and worries in your balloon and let it drift off, knowing that God hears and God will take of it.”

Another Day in Paradise

We loved going to the Kimberly Diner.

It was very small, and the patrons were very loud, but the food was very good - simple things, breakfast and lunch food.

The waitress and owner would call everyone “Happy people,” as in her greeting, “Hello, happy people,” or “What can I get for you happy people?”

That’s why we called it the Happy People Diner.

One day, as we were paying, I casually asked the cashier, “So how’s it going?” He replied immediately, and surprisingly, “Another day in paradise.”

I was amazed. What an interesting thing to say.

A Place That Seems Alive

Artwork by Bruce Zboray www.bruce-zboray.artistwebsites.com


Did you ever have a place that you keep going back to, again and again, because it makes you feel so good? I mean, it’s like the land itself is calling, like a friend.

One of my favorite places is the grounds of Shakespeare Theater in Stratford, Ct. In the 1950’s and 1960’s this was a very popular theater. It seems like the joy of that time still lives on the grounds, or perhaps some deep joy was there already, even before the theater.

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