Smile POWer

Our house was quite pleasant 14 days BC (Before Coronavirus). Only the mass hysteria of a last minute costume demand from my tween who was up for all sorts of skullduggery pre World Book Day could cause such pandemic worth noting in our lives.

"Harry Potter? Kylo Ren...? What about The Doc?" (You know – Marty McFly’s nutty professor friend in Back To The Future) I had suggested motherly and unhelpfully, knowing only too well that two out of three of these characters were never even created in a book and had hit the cinema screens first.

And anyway, Harry Potter? Kylo Ren? The Doc? Been there many years before and got the costumes, which I may add are well out grown anyway. (And yes, I am a bad mother because I can not find a single photograph that captures and commemorates such fudging moments of world book day history and individuality.)

My tween however was cunning and quite predictable in his unpredictability at that time - 14 days BC.

He emerged wearing school trousers, a skeleton sweatshirt with bones that glow in the dark and my eldest daughter’s fedora...

I have never seen him so well dressed.

“I am my sister’s favourite, expert detective. I am a skeleton and I can use magic," he says. "C’mon, it’s as easy as ABC... Tomorrow Mum, I’m going to be…

SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT!”

I thank my lucky chocolate stars for Derek Landy - an Irish author.

My lips curl upwards. My spirits rise (unlike Landy's unlucky Skulduggery Pleasant - PLOT SPOILER AERT - whose spirit did not move onwards and upwards mainly because his bones were placed in a bag and thrown in a river.)

Anyway, I transgress.

I smile.

Like Skullduggery Pleasant I manage to pull myself together. There stood my very own Skulduggery Pleasant - likewise proficient and favouring modern technology - but in my tween’s favour, without a doubt, he would honour a lightsaber duel - anytime with anyone.

I love my tween. My tween inspires me to write. My tween says "NO!" to writer’s block.

My tween makes me smile. A lot. During good times and bad times.

We can all take a leaf (and a great character!) out of my tween’s book.

My tween reminds me that:

A smile is a universal sign of happiness.

A smile is so easy to detect that even BABIES have been seen to smile from inside the womb.

CHOCOLATE will always raise a smile and should be an essential part of our diet – especially whilst social distancing which is without a doubt one of the most DEPRESSING and challenging times of our lives right now.

The simple act of a smile releases natural painkillers called ENDORPHINS, which means there is no time quite like the present lockdown to say ‘cheese’ (maybe lose the face mask for a moment) and capture the moment, enjoying an increased sense of well being – not to mention a stronger immune system.

Smiling is the second best thing you can do with your lips and uses only FIFTY THREE facial muscles - less than what it takes to frown.

A smile is the most GLAMOROUS accessory you can wear; it’s more attractive than make up and will create a natural glow on your face.

A smile will either warm people’s HEARTS or royally piss them right off - a win-win situation!

IT’S a fact. Women smile eight times more than men everyday.

JUST imagine for a moment what nineteen different smiles might look like? Because that’s how many smiles there are!

KEEP smiling! It will intimidate anyone (even Kylo Ren) who hopes to destroy you - and why give them the satisfaction of seeing you down anyway?

LIFE is too short, so make sure you smile – especially while you still have teeth.

Smiling will not only MAKE someone’s day, but it will also make people wonder what you’ve been up too. 😉

NEVER underestimate the importance of having a person in your life that can make you smile because -

OMG! The world will be a happier place.

PEACE also begins with a smile. So QUIT your moaning and groaning and start and end each day with a smile.

Remember, the simple act of smiling RELEASES serotonin - a natural anti-depressant which means less stress (yippee!)

A SMILE really is just a curve that sets everything straight.

And it TURNS out that it’s physically easy to put a smile on your face, not to mention that a genuine smile will make your eyes go all crinkly too!

Oh and did U know. ..

You can’t say the letter ''P'' without separating your lips?

WTF?!

Did you just attempt to say ‘P’ with your lips closed?

X-CELLENT!

That’s funny, but you’ve skipped V...

YIKES! But there is no V, you say, looking like a puzzled goldfish…

ZUT ALORS!

Are you smiling right now?!

I hope so, because for a moment there I'd wished that you were actually fooled by all my smiley tomfoolery.

And I just want to say that if you gain nothing else from my snapshot BC - always hold on to the fact that smiling is also contagious. Please don’t just sit there in isolation waiting to catch it, be a carrier and share the smiles in every way you know how.

BTW.. My tween ended up winning best character for World Book Day 😊