The Power of a Smile

It’s always there, that pesky shadow, telling you you’re worthless. Telling you that you don’t matter. It’s there when you wake up and the last thing you see before you go to bed. This shadow, who you once barely noticed, has grown so large it consumes everything you see.

Its hard cold hands that reach out and touch all you care about, causing them to recoil. It darkens the things you once loved leaving once cherished hobbies nothing more than chores.

It saps your energy, shortens your days, and makes it impossible to leave bed.

And like any shadow, you can never escape it, no matter how hard you try to run.

Slowly this shadow consumes you, leaching the light and warmth that you felt from within, leaving in its place only darkness and cold.

It whispers doubts in your ear, making you feel insecure about speaking up and telling those how you feel, leaving you feeling that you are alone.

But there was something the shadow couldn’t stop. Something it could never have anticipated. The light that came from that beautiful smile.

It broke through the fog, through the darkness like night. Like a beacon like none other and a feeling of warmth.

I never believed a smile could make such a huge difference, but it definitely did. Something as simple as a smile gave me a reason to live.