It is supposed to rain today. Rain can be nice. It doesn't freeze here much so ice usually isn't a problem. It's way before sunrise now. Things are very peaceful. Some of the cone incense is burning on the shelf. No ringing phones, no television at this time of the morning. I am the only bayou bird awake right now. It is a nice present from Santa this time of the morning on the day before Christmas.
I never do much for entertaining for Christmas. I am not much into gift giving either -- at least not the gifts people crowd the stores to buy on December 23rd and 24th. I am probably not that much alone in preferring to give simpler gifts to most of my friends and relatives. But I usually succeed in giving even passers-by a genuine smile. This was not always the case.
I clearly remember being younger in my teens even, and finding it difficult to smile. Things changed as I grew a little older. Smiling was reinforced when I was a salesman for a few years. Funny the changes we can make in order to earn money. Having a nice smile was essential when selling suits that might cost over $500 to persons I had never really met before.
Salesmanship was not the only factor that influenced the increased frequency of my smiles. You might think the young women would be more attracted to a smiling salesman, and this may be true. But in my opinion there came a point when I became hooked on smiling and started doing it for its own sake. Yes, I began to like the way smiling made me feel. That came about 2 or 3 years after I started breathing fresh air again. Fresh air is something I cherish now days. But admittedly there were some intervening times when I was hoked on things other than smiling and fresh air. Things you may be familiar with. But we are not here to talk about those things. Now the smiles are here and fresh air circulates throughout my body and mind. I am in the habit of thinking positive in the face of catastrophe and smiling a lot is just the outward manifestation of feeling good on the inside, wouldn't you agree? In my case, the smiling came before the good feelings.
Maybe it's things like that about which this blog will be written: Happiness in the face of adversity, minimalism, and sometimes the downright austere. I like to think of it as, "how to smile inside without letting on that I am happy doing without this or that which some might consider a necessity of modern living" Take the fact that I have no car to call my own and I live in a commuter city. But I really like the pace of walking (most of the time.) And then there is the bus and saving energy and decreasing pollution. All of these things I am happy to participate doing as I ride the bus and walk and enjoy a more natural pace for my thoughts. I am a bird in the morning on the Louisiana bayous. Waterways that meander through urban sprawl unnoticed support life in a daily struggle with the encroaching vain and myopic vision of Progress. I have my own visions of things in store for humanity and although I smile and breathe fresh air today, I wonder how much longer this fragile planet can bleed fossil fuels and choke on our pursuit of things apparently more desirable than fresh air itself. I smile because I know we are doing it and I smile because maybe it is all I can do to be smiling my part watching the new day begin after this long night.
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