Turn That Frown Upside Down

I’m busy preparing for a challenge set by author Wendy H Jones.  The challenge is to use the national celebration days throughout October to market your books.  There are some interesting days, such as; national vodka day, boyfriend day and handbag day.  Who on earth dreams up these things?  It is a great challenge, but before I tell you my two favourites, I’ll tell you a short story.

A youth worker friend of mine was chatting to a young person who had been dealing with a lot of struggles and the lad said to him, “Why can’t people just be nicer?”

My friend responded by telling the boy that this is the second of the Ten Commandments, ‘to love your neighbour.’

Getting back to Wendy’s challenge, one of my favourite days is ‘Do Something Nice Day.’  As I think about this and my friend’s story, I ask the same question as that young lad and I question, “Why do we have a, ‘Do Something Nice Day?”  If we all did something nice every day, then there would be no need for it.

It is so easy to do something nice every day and it fits in with my second favourite day, ‘World Smile Day.’  It’s so easy to smile at other people instead of having that long, grumpy face.  There is a technique called, ‘smile talk’ which is as the name suggests, to smile whilst talking.  This technique has been proven to lift our mental health.  It’s so easy to do, will change you and could even change another person’s life. 

There’s a well-known story about a young man in San Francisco, who jumped off of the Golden Gate Bridge.  His suicide note read, “I’m walking to the bridge to jump off.  If just one person cares enough to smile at me just briefly on the way, I won’t jump.”  So let’s support ‘World Smile Day every day and in doing so, do something nice every day.  Turn your frown upside down you never know you could be saving a life.

A final caution, I now smile a lot, but it has landed me in trouble a few times.  I have to always remind myself NOT to smile when someone is telling me some bad news.  I’m sure that I will smile when I see some of the other author’s posts for this crazy challenge.  

Brendan is a Christian poet and author of 8 books, including 'The book of PSALMS in Rhyme.'  Based in Stroud Gloucestershire.  There are 'self-made men' and 'God-made men', Brendan is the latter.  An associate speaker with Christian Vision for Men.  A member of the Association of Christian Writers.

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