What Makes You Smile?

Today (August 26) is my fiance’s birthday, so in honor of that I am writing a special post that is about the topic of things that make us smile, but also about my first date with Matt (the 2 are tied together).

 

Matt and I met at a party at a mutual acquaintance’s house.  It’s kind of funny because it wasn’t a place either one of us usually went to (in fact I think it was the first time either of us had gone), but we happened to both show up on the same night.  I won’t go in to the whole story in the post (too long) , but will just say that it was the typical guy sees girl across a semi crowded room and asks about her scenario.  It was about 1 week later that we went on our first date.

 

 

 

Matt had asked me out on a “surprise” date for Friday after I got out of work (a surprise because he didn’t tell me ahead of time where we were going or what we were doing).  At this point in time we were complete strangers.  To my recollection, he had only briefly approached me (the second night we were both at that house) to introduce himself and we had only talked briefly on the phone maybe once (probably the same call where he asked me out haha).  He wanted to take me out of town to a fancy restaurant and a movie and we had about a 40-45 min. car ride as strangers to “get acquainted”.

 

 

 

Now Matt is a quiet guy, not a chatterbox like myself 🙂 , but yet he didn’t act shy and awkward.  For some reason I felt pretty comfortable with this particular semi “stranger”.  I will always remember his unique “ice-breaker” question to get a conversation going.  He asked me, “What are the things that make you smile?”

 

 

I thought that was a pretty neat way of getting to know someone and actually a question no other guy had asked me.  I am sure he was expecting some kind of more general or simple answer , as at this point he didn’t know much about me and didn’t know my sort of poetic way of looking at life.  I can’t remember my exact words but I can remember some of the things I said..such as the smell of lilacs in the spring, a soft rain, the leaves crunching under your feet in the fall, bonfires, etc.   (Right about now you are picturing a Sound Of Music-esque scene with me bursting in to song about “My favorite things!”, aren’t you ? :P)

 

 

I guess for me it has always been the simple things that make me smile.  Simple , yet beautiful little moments and things around you that fill your senses.  The things in life that are usually free…like this memory I have for example 🙂  In honor of Matt’s birthday, I thought it would be fun to revisit this question and make a list of the things that make me smile.  I would like for you all to participate too!  This is an exercise that is good for the soul and you can refer back to this list on days when you don’t feel like smiling and need a reminder.  Make as big of a list as you want to, and then keep a copy for yourself, and please share a few things from your list here in the comments section below (at weliveinspired.com)!

 

I will start us off :

• Baby Kittens
• Children laughing and playing (not to mention the things they say!)
  

  Spongebob from the episode about “imagination” 😀

• Giving people presents and watching them open them
• Rainbows
• a phone call from a friend (or a visit is even better!)
• Thunderstorms and walking in the rain ( I will confess I sometimes even dance
  

  A black squirrel that showed up at the bird feeder Christmas Morning 2011

  around in it)

• The first big snow of Winter-especially at night when the whole ground is covered and it sparkles
• Spongebob Squarepants
• a good practical joke
• Animals of any kind-even watching squirrels in the yard.  Wildlife fascinates me.
• Making a difference in someone’s life
  

  Lily of the Valley from the yard. One of my favorite flowers.

• fond memories
• Homemade ice cream -hand cranked!
• Flowers
• good music
• getting real mail (snail mail of course).  I love going to the mailbox haha
• creating
• opening up a fresh new book to read
• Getting sweet text messages from Matt or my friends, letting me know they are thinking of me

 

Well there you have it!  A good start, and now it’s your turn 🙂  Need some motivation to make YOU smile and get thinking of what to put on your list?  Watch this :

Don’t forget to leave at least one thing that makes you smile in the comment section below. I encourage you to do something that makes you smile today and then pass those smiles on to someone else out there who may need it!