50 Reasons to Smile

It's not often that I wake up with a sigh. This morning, however, it was very much a sigh day.

So today I decided to go out in the search of smiles.

Faced with daily doom and gloom and the pressure of our constantly busy lives, it would be easy to see nothing but the bad things. Never mind glass half empty, reading the newspapers it seems there is no water all together. Or glasses come to that.

But if you look for it, you'll find that happiness, actually, is all around you. Today I spent the whole day looking, wandering between London Fields and Broadway Market. Sat on a bench at London Fields happiness was everywhere. Friends threw frisbies and kicked footballs, families picnicked on the grass, cyclists pedalled past with great big beams on their faces and people read books in the shade. Everywhere I looked there were people scattered like tiny islands of laughter and happiness or solitary stars. Yet all together they made up one glowing constellation.

Newton Faulkner was right when he said that people should smile more. From one day in the sunshine I found 50 reasons to smile:

1) Looking at my calendar and seeing the words 'British Summer time begins'
2) Pink shoes
3) Happy feet
4) Smiling daffodils
5) Green grass
6) Neat houses
7) Neat streets
8) Chalkboards
9) Farm life in the city
10) Great big sacks of muddy potatoes
11) Potatoes in general: roasted, mashed, fried, in their jackets
12) School playgrounds
13) Market stall holders shouting offers
14) Hopscotch
15) Bookshops where I could spend all day and all my student loan
16) The smell of books
17) The feel of paper

18) People
19) Busy streets
20) Loving living in a city

21) Fish and chips
22) Shiny red Ferraris
23) Rusty old bikes
24) Tables and chairs outside
25) Old fashioned pubs
26) Pints of cider
27) Sunglasses
28) Chatting people spilling out of pubs and onto the street
29) The smell of freshly baked bread
30) E5 Bakehouse, a lovely new bakery at London Fields
31) Ben the Baker who made me the best toasted sandwich of my life
32) The toasted sandwich itself: crunchy warm bread, melted cheddar cheese and homemade chutney
33) Flashes of colour
34) The safety of a daddy's shoulders
35) Chubby little children
36) Wandering lonely as a cloud
37) Reading in the sunshine
38) The simple coincidence of reading 'London Fields' in London Fields
39) People who are never forgotten
40) The wisdom of Albert Einstein
41) Benches for tired feet
42) Sunday papers
43) Contented couples
44) Picnics
45) Families and friends



46) Sunshine
47) Afternoon strolling
48) Cupcakes
49) Icing
50) Love Hearts

Newton Faulkner knows best.

Libby