Smiling. It’s a workout for a face that melts, but obviously necessary. Each grin grips the cheeks and chin, pulling the skin back from gravity and pushing the spirit stronger. I remind myself to do it repeatedly when I’m all alone folding laundry and cleaning my home, preparing  feasts, baking bread, spicing cake, chanting in my head:

“PULL your lip corners UP and force your age down!” AND…

Presto! I laugh! So silly stupid, my child-like brain has to join the exercise and chuckle.

Rain pours pounds on my door, hands ache so much, I can barely hold my phone, but the beautiful thing I can’t ignore is that my desire wants more…I’m learning what it feels like to laugh with my eyes!!! Me, happy, inspired, smiling until I grit my teeth, holding back an exalted screech.

Clouds inevitably cover the sun, ruining a perfect moment, halting my momentum.

Exercise…smiling??? No way, that’s not MY catastrophic personality,  my overwhelming “what-could-be’s” controlling my thoughts daily.

Yet, a recent change of perspective on clouds and sun shines through everything I’m doing and have done:

My smiling workout seems less like a task wearing a deceptive mask and more like a bright light illuminating a rainbow produced from storm clouds and sun.