Today (Friday 4th October) has been World Smile Day.

Ordinarily, I would consider this to be a day to celebrate – after all, a smile can often be the difference that makes the difference in someone’s day.

I’ll be honest with you though – I haven’t felt much like smiling today.

This afternoon I attended another funeral – the second one I’ve been to in the space of just 3 months.  As funerals tend to be, it was an extremely sad occasion with many tears being shed as family and friends expressed their grief.  With the memory of my Nana’s funeral still relatively fresh in my mind it was made all the harder to be there.

My stepdaughter Sophie, who turns 12 next month, had volunteered herself to read a poem during the service – it was her Grandad (on her Mum’s side) that had passed away.  The poem she chose was the same poem that was read at my Nana’s funeral in July.  Sophie has been practising hard over the last week and when she moved to the front of the church she determinedly clutched the piece of paper on which her words were written.

As she began to speak, her voice gave out and she sobbed.  The rest of the congregation cried along with her (including me), feeling her deep sadness alongside our own.  When she was all cried out, she managed to finish reading her poem, returned to her seat and turned around to give her Dad and I a small smile.

That little smile said so much more than she could have spoken with words.

Smiles do that, you see.  They tell you things that are impossible to communicate in any other way.  That’s why they’re so important.

Now it’s time for more honesty:  I’ve spent the best part of an hour sat at my desk staring at my laptop screen trying to figure out what I want to say in this blog.  It’s a tricky one – how much is too much to share?  What message do I want people to leave with once they finish reading it?  What have I learnt from today?

After the first five minutes of that hour, my screensaver switched on.  My screensaver is a slideshow of every single photograph I’ve ever taken – all my memories literally flashing up in front of my eyes.  I could probably tell you the location and context of each and every image.

As I watched the pictures, I noticed that in the vast majority of them, someone was smiling.  What was more remarkable, however, is that each smile told a story.  Each smile let me know what that person was feeling at the time the photograph was taken.

With that realisation, I suddenly knew what it was I wanted to say in this blog:

Your smile matters.

It really does.

Whoever you decided to give it to today, whoever you choose to give it to tomorrow, your smile matters more than you are ever likely to know.

So give your smile away freely – you never know who might be needing it.

PS:  This is my current favourite photograph of my girls, taken just a couple of days ago.  It makes me smile just to look at it, and I remember smiling a lot when I snapped the picture.  I hope it makes you smile too.  And if you want to share this smile with anyone else, please feel free to share my blog on Facebook and/or Twitter.  Smiling is infectious you know 😉