Merry Christmas everyone!

#merry christmas

5 months ago  /  0 notes

Just A Smile

I just found out about The Candle Project which was initiated by Curt Mega. The goal of this project is to give love to the people around you, whether you know them or not. Each of the originally five - now 3 ½ - weeks, everyone who wants to participate shall find a way to share their love and encourage people to do the same. I know it’s “friends week” at the moment and “strangers week” only starts in two weeks, but I’m going to post my story now, although I mainly connect it to strangers:

Have you noticed that many people you see on their own in public are not smiling? They seem stressed, sad or angry and not enjoying their lives. Of course, you can’t say that for sure but even if they just have a single bad day and are usually smiling, why not help to make this day a better one, as well? I’m a happy person and love to laugh with my friends and family but when I was younger I didn’t care much about those strangers on the train or in the street, because I didn’t know them. However, several years ago I stumbled upon the (originally French) quote “A smile enriches the person who receives it without impoverishing the person who gives it” by Raoul Follereau, and this quote has become my life motto. As children, it seems, we all knew this quote is true. You know how when a small child smiles at you from their stroller, and, even if it’s a child you don’t know, you can’t help but smile back? Well, even if you’re not a small child anymore, you should still continue smiling. There’s another quote by German writer Erich Kästner which, I think, captures this in seven lines:

“Most people discard their childhood just like an old hat.
They forget it like a phone number which is no longer current.
They see their lives like a dry sausage which is eaten bit by bit,
and what has been eaten doesn’t exist anymore.
There was a time when they were children,
Then they grew up, but what are they now?
Only those who grow up and remain children at heart are truly human.”

So whenever I sit on a metro train or take a walk somewhere, I smile at a stranger if they seem to be in need of one. You may wonder why and imagine such a situation yourselves and think, well, if there’d be a stranger smiling at me for no reason it would be a very awkward situation. I don’t know if people think that when I smile at them and I never know how people will react, either, but most of the time they smile back and I know that I have moved them in a way, and that the smile – now on their face – might help them to make it through the day. Think about it on your way to school, to work, to the doctor or the grocery store and give a smile to a complete stranger. You’ll see, it will make you feel good about yourselves, as well.

#The Candle Project #give #share #smile #love #glee #Curt Mega

6 months ago  /  59 notes