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I have always smiled at people and over the years got mixed reactions.

I now live in a place where smiling is natural - so natural that if someone doesn't smile back I am surprised! It is part of what makes me feel at home here - that smiles can be freely given and taken, a currency that makes everyone richer

Yes it seems the further north you go in the UK the friendlier people are, my mother lives in the Midlands and I am always amazed by how many people smile at me when I am there, it is not the same where I live further south.

I was in the mall Christmas shopping today, I was in a store a "conversation" between a mother and daughter in the next aisle drifted to me. It was that cute bantering that mom and child do when the child thinks the mom is just being - well a "mom". Not quite arguing, but the type of conversation one could only have with a teenager who knows absolutely "everything", while the mom knows "nothing."...lol... Not really an argument - I could tell they were having fun.

I listened for awhile then I asked the girl if she was in highschool or college, she said highschool. I told her mom that listening to them reminded me of shopping conversations with my daughter and that this would be my first Christmas shopping season without her, now that she's in college. I said I would give anything to have my daughter back here to have those cute little "argument" moments. They both smiled and the mom thanked me for putting it back in perspective. She said she wasn't looking forward to that day.

It was nothing major, I just felt the need to reach out. Sometimes we take our loved ones for granted as if they will always be here. I think that if we reminded people more often of the fragility of life, it would be a better place.