Smiles :)

There are a lot of moments in life you can look back on and smile. Then there are things you look forward to smiling into the distance. And then there are moments that occur while you stand grinning. A few days ago I learned what it means to smile, and more how much it really DOES mean. I went running through Monteverde, where I live, and waved eagerly to the cars that honked as they drove by recognizing that I am back. I didn’t know people in half the cars, but I remembered what I had began doing before I left…
As I would run, I smiled or waved at the passing faces I recognized but did not know, and also at the ones I did. In smiling you can give such pure emotions without saying anything. A teacher once told me when he goes out on the one main road there is in Monteverde, he smiles or waves at every car or person he sees. I asked him what happens if the person the gesture is directed at wears a questioning face, as if they are trying to understand directions to somewhere they've never been before, and they don't wave or smile back, and he simply told me, “They will eventually.” He was right, too. Last semester I did it one day just to try, and my mood lightened as I smiled at people during the forty-five minute walk home from my friends house. By the time I got home I felt euphoric and almost giddy. So I kept doing it. I came back and forgot I had done this for so long, but now the people I used to wave and smile at do it to me first. I realized most people I would smile or wave at I now have personal relationships with, in seeing them outside their car or off the streets, or just stopping to talk to them on my way. Sometimes we hardly realize we are capable of it, but real joy can be passed on with a smile in less than a second.
I just finished playing what began as a passing game between a few people and ended a full on soccer match. The sunny days tend to welcome people of different ages, genders, and cultures to the futbol field behind my school. Sharing something with someone, like a common goal, a team, or that as simple as a smile is where the common ground love is begins. I believe we all share something, even if it's a tiny something, and in learning this I have realized there is no reason not to love. Everyone I meet has something to teach me, and by loving them-or simply smiling at them as I pass-I can create an openness that allows them to do so.