A Smile is a Small but Enormous Thing

I was at the doctors office for a routine visit a week or so ago. I got his first appointment in the morning so I could get in, get it done and go!

Well, didn’t turn out as planned. He was training a fellow to become a geriatric physician. So my appointment lasted just about an hour, which is of course better than the 10 minute hello goodbye let me bill the insurance company and move to, “Next!”. Now, I need to explain my doctor is one of the best geriatric physicians. He really understands aging – not all of us are senile with broken hips.

I was sitting waiting after my meet with the doc waiting for my paperwork and for me to Git! Well that didn’t happen either. After about 10 minutes another patient checked in and sat in the waiting room as well.

She was one of those hard to guess age elders. Hair neatly done and dyed brown – not one gray hair anywhere. She was on the light side of average weight and her face showed our familiar signs of aging, until she smiled. Here we go.

She sat down and I finished my quick survey and she looked back at me and a couple others in the room. Well I sat and the Doc’s assistants were scurrying here and there. And I just want to go. But no go. Yet. And out of the corner of her eye I saw her glance again. An aide came in, looking a paper, she couldn’t find, and hurried off again. We both smiled, she looked at me and I gave her brief glance. Was she smiling at me? Now I wasn’t looking for any new friends or relationships and I thought she was so by ignoring her I would show her I was, and am, happily married.

That was my mistake.

I was too involved in my schedule to share a bit of kindness. Even if she was looking for a relationship, which in retrospect may have been the way her smile made me feel, but what if she were a friendly person doing her bit to make anybody’s day a bit brighter? But I did not return the smile. That is the lesson I learned. I assumed she was supporting my vanity because that’s the way she made me feel. I should have shared her smile and let her know she was well appreciated and “valued.”

Smile! Be kind, it can’t hurt and it will help to make this world just a little bit better. Especially when you’re going to the doctor or dentist!