The Weekly Smile 11/26/2018 #weeklysmile

36 Replies

weeklysmile2a

There was a lot to smile about this last week!  Talking to friends and family.  Good times.  Good food.  Playing with puppies.  Walks in the woods.  Getting my next book, Embers, loaded into KDP.  The list goes on.  But I will talk about something odd instead.  Maybe some other Introverts out there will understand ;)

I was doing my typical (for when I am on Cape Cod) morning walk on Chapin’s Beach on Saturday.  Even though it had warmed up significantly and the wind had died down, I had it to myself.  (Note – the best time for walks on the beach are early mornings in the winter.)  The tide was coming in and I enjoyed watching the water gobble up the sand flats.  The photo below is part of the flats that were gone 5 minutes after the photo was taken.

chapin-11-24-2018

At the end of the beach there is a river that goes back into a large salt march.  The beach comes to a point and there was a drop of almost a foot between the ocean side (actually bay) of the beach and the river side.  Water was racing around this point, rushing to fill the salt marsh.

I saw a a little depression on the edge.  ‘Little’ is about five foot long (1.5 m) by 3 feet wide (1 m) by about 2 feet deep (.75 m).There was a thin wall of sand separating this little hole from the tidal rapids.  First a small splash went over the wall, leaving a trail of sand behind.  And then another.  I watched in fascination as the rising water breached the wall more and more often.  There was a build up of sand that reminded me of the wax flows on a candle that has been used many times.  Finally a small chunk of wall melted away allowing an almost constant small flow of water in.  Funny, but even though the bottom of the depression was far below water level, the incoming water was still being absorbed by the sand.  After that breach, though, the end was inevitable.  It widened and deepened, allowing more water in.  The natural bowl soon began to fill.  The crack became a gully became a canyon.  And then that little empty valley was just another part of the stream, an eddy where the water spun around.  then that was gone.

From the time I stopped until it was gone was maybe three minutes.  And in that three minutes, the world had changed.

Part of me wanted to take my phone out and video it.  Another part of me is glad I didn’t.

Isn’t that just strange?  Why was it so fascinating?  Why did I have to watch?  I don’t know, but I’m glad I did.  It caused a huge smile :)

What made you smile?

****

Come on, I’m sure you smiled at least once last week.  Why don’t you share it?  I hope you can join in!

Here is list of “rules” and guiding ideas.  If you don’t have time to read it right now, just remember that this is an exercise to spread positivity.  Don’t smile about the misfortune of others.  Don’t smile in a way to excludes others.  Make sure a 12 year old can read it.

And remember, the Smile can be anything, large or small.  Nothing, nothing at all is too small for a Smile!  Sometimes taking time to notice those small, every day smiles is more important than those once in a lifetime huge ones :)

To join in, write a post to share your smile and then leave a comment on this post with a link to your smile.  Or, if you prefer, do a pingback to this post (pingback = have a link from your post to this one).   You can post any time until next Sunday evening (to be simple, I will say midnight GMT, which is 7 PM Sunday for me).   Next week I will compile all of the Smiles and do a separate post of them on Monday morning just before the smile.  (I will shoot for around 7 AM EST).

Try to use the hashtag #WeeklySmile when you use Twitter or other social media that uses hashtags. I searched Twitter and found that #weeklysmile had been used only a handful of times back in 2012 and 2013. It hasn’t been used since. So it’s ours! I also registered it on Twubs.

You can use the graphic at the top. It is the official graphic for the event.

Now go out there and find something to smile about! :)

***

“There are days I go in search of the kind, compassionate, loving and beautiful. Despite what we sometimes see on the news, FB and elsewhere, there is much more beauty in the world than ugliness, much more kindness than hate or cruelty. Perhaps we should all have a goal to make at least one person smile every day.”

***

When I used to do a monthly compassion post, this was my theme:

Empathy is the glue that holds society together and compassion is what makes a group of people a civilization. Without holding our hands out to our fellow humans we become savages. We are all in this together, in a closed system, so we must all help each other. How lonely life must be for those selfish people who don’t realize this simple truth! How lonely for anyone who doesn’t realize that all are our brothers and sisters! How lonely must the self-righteous be!

36 thoughts on “The Weekly Smile 11/26/2018 #weeklysmile”

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    1. trentpmcd Post author

      I think that is part of it – we think of earth as being set and stable, and watching the water form and shape it makes us realize that it isn’t.

      I’m sure there were many Thanksgiving smiles with friends this week :)

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

  18. Pingback: THE WEEKLY SMILE: SO MANY BIRDS – Marilyn Armstrong – Serendipity – Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth

    2. Solveig

      Hello Marilyn, I really enjoyed your post, but for some reason, wordpress won’t let me like or comment on some blogs (unless I pass through the reader on my computer, but that doesn’t work half the time or the app on my phone)…

      Like

      Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      As I just said to Gray in a previous comment, watching nature do its thing is fascinating. One thing I like about tide and water is that it proves that Earth isn’t as unchangeable as we sometimes imagine. I might have seen a photo of that chocolate house on Instagram :)

      Like

      Reply ↓
  23. Gary A Wilson

    Hi Trent, neat stuff the above. I’m one of those who would sit and watch the earth before me sculpt itself. I also love any video of a glacier making a dramatic motion, often into the ocean.

    I think this is also your invitation for smiles for this week, so I’m pleased to share a new story I captured from my own ancient times. In school, I was not good at so many things ranging from sports to math to girls and even being social. I was one awkward mess but I had recognized it and was determined to fix what meant the most to me and what seemed to be under my control.

    I detected a small fear of heights and was not pleased with something that could be so irrational in my makeup so I began to tinker with it to see what could be done. Here’s the story of how it all worked out.

    https://garyawilsonstories.wordpress.com/considering-the-fear-of-heights/

    I hope your readers find something of themselves in the story along with a few things to laugh at.

    Blessings

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓
    1. trentpmcd Post author

      Sometime watching nature do it’s thing is fascinating. We think of the earth as hard and set, yet it is constantly changing.

      I’ll make it over to look at your post a little later. :)

      Like

      Reply ↓

  24. Pingback: The Weekly Smile 11/26/18 | Nut House Central

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