Contagious...

Today I was reminded just how contagious smiles are. And how uplifting. And kind. From two different women who both had incredible challenges. One had a large chin disfigurement and was missing a good portion of her jaw. She passed me in a crosswalk. We made eye contact and broke out in our biggest smiles. The second woman about an hour later was entirely covered in nodules and bumps, especially her face. As we passed each other, we both made eye contact and broke out in large smiles. I am not sure who smiled first each time but we all smiled at each other. There was no missing jaw. There were no disfiguring nodules. There were just beautiful eyes and spirits gazing past the irrelevant surface. Completely full of love. And simple hope...