Kindness.

"A cheerful look brings joy to the heart, and good news gives health to the bones. "Proverbs 15:30

San Luis Obispo County stopped giving out shopping bags at their grocery stores. Well....all stores, really. Save The Earth. It's awesome. I'm all for it. Amazing idea. I've wanted to be more of a recycler. A green girl. I admit that so far I've been REALLY bad at it. SLO county is forcing me to THiNK.  Bring my own bags. Plan ahead before I go shopping. (Which may or may not happen regularly;)). Anyways....I usually show up at TJ's or Albertsons with a basket full of food and NO BaG. I forget. Dang. Not again.
This weekend was different. I remembered The BAG. I was so proud of myself. I was Green. Happy. Excited, even. (I REMEMBerEd!!) I just needed a few things so I put them in The BAG. Stood in line. Placed the BaG on the belt. Waited cheerfully for my turn. The checker lady looks at The BAG & looks at me. With a VERY grumpy VOICE & sour FACE says "BAD IDEA." She dumps The BAG of items out on the belt. Rings them up. Puts them back in the bag. (She never said another word to me, btw.). RUUUUDE.  Hmmmmm. OK. I guess I still didn't do it right. But REaLLy lady. Do you have to be so CRAnKy about it?  I'm TRYING.  I'm making progress. At least I showed up with The BAG, for heavens sake. How about a 'Cheerful Look' or a 'Kind Word'. That would have been NICE. Gosh.

All this to say: our Faces & Words MATTER. A LOT. A WINK & A SMILE goes a long way. Brings 'joy to the heart', even. A KINDNESS spoken gives 'health to the bones'.  It's a BIG DEAL to God. And to us. To me. I need to REMEMBER this. (Even if I'm having a bad day.) To be the ONE with the CHeeRful LOOK and the GOOd NEWs. I'm pretty sure it's contagious. Little by little I can spread some joy. I can make a difference. And hopefully I practice all of this at HOmE, too. Where it MATTErS MOST;)). Happy Monday.