A smile is contagious and Wendnesday Word Challenge Answers

I photographed this pretty dune at Myrtle Beach. I love how cheerful it looks with color. The sepia tone is pretty too but it lends a bit of loneliness, which leads into today's post.
Forewarning, this is a long but meaningful post.

Because I am in retail, I say hello with a smile to everyone whom I come in contact with. Sometimes they walk on by without so much as a nod or even making eye contact. This used to bother me but after 6+yrs, I figured out that there may be many reasons for this reception. One being that they may be having a rough time in life, another being they have become callus and don't care how they make others feel, and another is that they may be having a bad day. So I keep these things in mind when I am shopping and someone greets me. A smile is such a simple thing to offer someone. It can make you feel so good to get one and for me to give one.
Sometimes that is all someone needs. I believe a smile is contagious. It is hard to not smile back when someone smiles at you. I've tested this theory.

A smile and an offer to help often is followed by a relieved expression and into a conversation.While helping customers I often build a relationship with them. It may be a short lived one but they confide in me so that I can help them figure out how to do something or sometimes it has nothing to do with the project and it is just because they need an ear.

I had a lady come in and told me she needed a new back door and a storm door. After talking with her to find out her needs it was revealed to me that her late husbands mother passed away earlier this month, so she went out of town to make all of the funeral arrangements and get her affairs in order and when she returned home, her own home had been broken into and her late husbands wedding band was stolen. She explained how callous the police had been and asked the value of the ring and then she had tears rolling down her cheeks and told me that the ring had great sentimental value and that his grandmother had made their wedding rings, as she was a jeweler. She didn't feel safe. She was hurt and angry, as you can imagine. I made arrangements for her doors to be installed right away and she left with a smile and thanked me for listening and all of my help. That made my heart smile knowing I could help her in my own small way. She will be in my thoughts for a very long time.
So, remember sometimes people need a warm smile even if they don't return it. You never know why they are the way they are. Right now so many of us are experiencing tough times, barely able to make ends meet, if at all and you can offer a a small bit of sunshine with something as simple as a smile. So go show your pearly whites and see how many you get in return and know that some of those people needed that more than you know.

Yesterday I posted these 3 famous quotes with missing words. The challenge was for you to figure out which words are missing. Well here are the answers.

"When one door closes, another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us." ~ Alexander Graham Bell

"Two peas in a pod"

"Oysters on the half shell"

Thanks for playing Mina and Lisa!