“The Day NJ Smiled!”

It has been said that your eyes are the windows to your soul. I always thought that was a beautiful saying and this week I am thinking twice. We have just spent over a year in a mask, with strangers seeing only our eyes.

Over a year of young impressionable children seeing strangers look at them with no smile…

…of breathing our own air all day…

…of having to avoid our loved ones.

…don’t hug, don’t shake hands, stay 6 feet apart….

NJ has just spent its first week without a mask, (if you’re fully vaccinated), and I’m here to say that I felt the difference in my interactions with strangers. Today, in the middle of a conversation a customer said to me, “Isn’t it great that we can sit and talk like this?” We were smiling at each other and last week we would not have known the reality of that. Maybe it looks like someone could be smiling, but there is so much lost when you cannot see it. This week for the first time in over a year, I could really see people respond to my smile. I could see them relax and most smiled back.

Don’t ever forget how far a smile can go.

Your smile is your superpower.