Smiling—whether
you’re doing it or someone’s doing it to you—is good for your health! It has a
bigger bang on your happy endorphins, in fact, than chocolate. Blind babies
smile at the sound of a familiar voice. And the openness of your smile can
predict longevity—the bigger the smile, the longer your life.
I
was smiling all weekend.
It’s
only recently that I’ve wanted to hang out with other peoples’ kids when my own
are at their other house. The great thing is, this weekend I hung out with
girls! I went out for dinner, to a birthday party of a friend, and climbed at
Elevation Place with these various girls (oh, and their parents too).
Speaking
of smiling, here are a few examples.
At
the 40th birthday party of my friend, her two daughters were
banished to their bedroom (at an appropriate hour) but sadly before cake. Since
that was not their understanding or expectation, they were, not surprisingly,
unhappy to go to bed. This was communicated promptly and efficiently (loud
screams from the upstairs bedroom indicated their displeasure and beckoned
parents) and the girls were soon back, in pjs, to enjoy the strawberry
cheesecake they had helped their dad pick out for mom.
That was smile-driving enough,
but the best part was when I passed the girls’ bedroom on my way to the
bathroom before leaving. Oldest Daughter was still awake, so we had a
conversation about how this was not her latest night ever. At a sleepover recently
she had stayed up until "2:30 a.m. in the morning." When I said good bye, she made
me promise not to tell her mom she was still up.
I
smiled and of course I said yes. (Please, don't anybody tell her.)
Out
for dinner with a friend who had his girls for the weekend on his own after
marital separation, I was absolutely jacked to get to know these two black-eyed
beauties. Not just cute, they’re sharp as tacks—and blazing with wide, open-mouthed smiles. Children smile up to 400 times a day (compared to the average adult's 20), but the cool thing is that's proven hard to not smile when being smiled at.
What increased my lifespan generously over pasta and wine was a game in which we had to guess the five-year-old’s favourite colour. This went on for quite a while with all the adults at the table throwing out suggestions, finally narrowing it down to a shade of pink that begins with “t.”
What increased my lifespan generously over pasta and wine was a game in which we had to guess the five-year-old’s favourite colour. This went on for quite a while with all the adults at the table throwing out suggestions, finally narrowing it down to a shade of pink that begins with “t.”
Of course, turquoise pink!
Why
did it take us to long to figure it out?
The biggest smile of the weekend
had to go to my own family. Andy and I met our boys with Steph, their other dad, at the climbing
gym on Saturday, and we hung out (literally) all morning. After ten days of
practice at Canmore’s new 50-foot climbing wall, the boys are getting braver,
stronger, and totally keen.
It makes me happy to see them
active (Report Card 7, the recent UNICEF study on the well-being of children and adolescents in the economically advanced nations, pointed out that Canadian children rank 26 out of
27 countries when it comes to obesity rates find it here) and passionate. They had
whole-body smiles all morning.
I was on the list to do my belay
test, as was Steph. We had a two-hour wait in the busy new facility, 
Even more smiles occurred later
that day when I discovered the Green Party (I know, where have been all these
years). More on that to come.
In one weekend, I believe I
considerably enhanced my well-being, lengthened my life, and had a blast--all through smiling.
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