UPBEAT TIMES, INC. • February 2017 • 21 Living the Upbeat Life SORRISO (sor-ree-so)


Q: I’d like to hear a story about something good coming out of some- thing not so good? Especially an ex- ample from an ordinary kind of day? I have so many of those! Thanks so much, NB from Santa Rosa


A: Hi, NB, thanks for writing. I’ll tell a story that happened recently during the holidays. I was utterly exhausted, pulling into a post of- fi ce parking lot.


I’d


performed eleven holiday programs, and still had a New Year’s gig to com- plete. Had I over- booked myself, or was I just getting too old to do all this? T e package I had


to mail contained a purchase order from Amazon for three of my kid coloring books or- dered in early December. Not want- ing to face the long lines of folks mail- ing their holiday giſt s, I’d put it off until post Christmas. It was 4:30 in the aſt ernoon. I


hoped the line was short. My work commutes plus a lingering bronchial congestion had tired me out. Walk- ing briskly towards the post offi ce, I noticed a full-fi gured, middle-aged Latina woman,


resting against a


make-shiſt seat that was part of the concrete parking dividers.


“Seen-


yor-a, haff a bew-tee-fool day,” she said with gusto. I nodded as I hurried by her, fi guring she was hoping for a hand-out, and I was just weary and wanting to be leſt alone. Arriving at the post offi ce, a young


woman who’d gotten there seconds ahead of me, held the door open for me. Relieved to see only two people in line, I politely gestured for the door opening benefactor –who was techni- cally there before me –to get in line ahead of me. She gently refused, twice -- probably noting my reddened, tired eyes and droopy shoulders. Five minutes later, my business was


done, Now I could go home and relax. Approaching my car, the same wom- an –dressed with care in a matching grayish and black skirt, blouse, shawl, smiled broadly again. haff a bew-tee-fool day!”


“Seen-yor-a, “After failure, You must resolve to do whatever the object of your resolution is.” ~ Auliq-Ice UPBEAT TIMES, INC. • February 2017 • 21 –Did she even remember that she


had just said that to me minutes be- fore? Caught between my desire to be nice, and my greater desire to be leſt alone, I replied that I was sorry, but simply had nothing more to give. Opening my car door, tears wanted to come: had I come to this? I couldn’t off er something, anything, to her? I grabbed an organic health bar from a cooler in the front, and a warm woolen muffl er I had planned to give as a Christmas giſt –and took them to the Hispanic lady.


She


smiled sweetly as she received my humble and humbling off er- ings.


“Gracias!” she said, fl ashing white


teeth. She explained in a mix of Span- ish and pieced together English that she had only been in this country for four months –“cuatro meses”--and


could not speak much English: Did I speak Spanish, she wondered? --Not so much, “Ma parlo poco Italiano,” I joked –a little Italian. To my surprise and delight, she began speaking back to me in Italian --! My tired brain could barely answer


back in any language, but I wanted her to know how beautiful she looked to me right then, such a lovely smile. “La parola por smile?” I asked, gestur- ing. “Sorriso! ” said my new friend, in Italian. “Mag-nee-fee-co” I beamed back


--in Italian, “You have un sorriso mag- nifi co --a magnifi cent smile.” Laugh- ing, she reached out her hands to me, and we took a moment to enjoy the fruits of our unexpected connection. Refl ecting back on the encounter,


I’m appreciating the giſt that woman’s radiance, optimism and friendliness was to me, the poorer soul that af- ternoon, impoverished in spirit from fatigue and negative expectation. What’s more, I’m no longer even sure


starting at


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by Marcia Singer www.lovearts.info


if she was asking for anything from me in the fi rst place! But I am certain that what she gave to me, from her kind heart, was priceless. So dear reader, in a word, I’ll bet


you have a captivating sorriso, too. Why don’t we display our toothy grins each day of the month, turning otherwise ordinary (or not so good) happenings into daily valentines? Shining deLight, Marcia


JOKES & Humor # 7 Customer:


Waiter, is this supposed to be coffee or tea? Waiter:


What does it taste like? Customer:


It tastes like gasoline! Waiter:


Well, sir, that would be the coffee. The tea tastes like turpentine.


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