I remember when I was growing up there was a syndicated single-panel cartoon titled, Love Is…featuring a young woman and a young man illustrating whatever the simple caption described about love. As I recalled that comic, I looked up its origin and discovered the cartoon couple is based on an actual couple and began with Kim (Grove) Casali creating small simple love notes to her future husband, Roberto Casali. Eventually Kim Casali collected several of her illustrations to create a small book and began selling them. By January 5, 1970, the Love Is… cartoon appeared for the first time in the Los Angeles Times newspaper before syndicating to newspapers and magazines in over 50 countries and being translated into more than 25 languages.
One of the things I always liked about the cartoon was its simplistic descriptions of love. She described love as distracting, making yourself useful around the house, feeling lightheaded, and having your day in the sun. They were succinct and whimsical and as I was considering my post for the day, I realized just how much I appreciate how she approached those love notes for her now husband and that, despite their simplicity, they were also deeply meaningful. Even more, they are still going strong.
Because that’s what love is. It’s sweet, whimsical, to the point, and long-lasting. And, of course, as I’ve said here often, it is an action, a choice we get to make again and again for the people we love in our lives. Perhaps that’s why today’s idea is a simple one for me. I love seeing our girls smile. I love the joy that exudes and the delight it expresses. I love that it can be small and subtle as they listen to a piece of music in their headphones or when they read a new book. I love that it can be dramatic and wide and exuberant because they are texting each other and making one another laugh and smile to the point their eyes sparkle with those wonderful smiles.
And while I love seeing their smiling faces, I think it’s pretty awesome that smiling provides some wonderful benefits. According to behavioral psychologist Sarah Stevenson, “Each time you smile you throw a little feel-good party in your brain.” In other words, the muscles used when we smile send signals to the brain that help boost our mood because that feel-good party brings out all the best party goers, including dopamine, endorphins, and serotonin. Even more, British researchers discovered that “one smile can generate the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 bars of chocolate.” Given that chocolate almost always makes me smile, you can imagine how I must be feeling much of the time given how much these two remarkable young women make me smile.
Honestly, I have been around folks who make me wonder if they might benefit from a serious prescription of smiles and chocolate. Maybe you know the type, too, that friend (for those friends) who seem the complete embodiment of Eeyore, the perpetually glum and gloomy donkey from the Winnie the Pooh series. Their mindset seems permanently set to the not-so-bright-side of life. Fortunately, our girls have learned the art of finding joy in as many small things as big things. And it’s those sweet but sometimes subtle smiles that stir my heart with joy and bring a smile to my face, too. After all, smiling and joy are contagious, and I am grateful to be exposed to their smiling joy every day.