Why Won’t They Smile Back?

As a sensitive person, I know that you sometimes (meaning almost always) hate it when people don’t smile back at you.
There are two things that helped me get over this, and feel more peace.
The first, was seeing an extreme example of how silly this was.
I was at an employee roundtable with the president of a large children’s hospital. A new employee told how happy she was to be there.
Then she told us how upset she became when she would smile at the doctors in the corridors and they didn’t smile back. She was so disappointed that these doctors looked down on her.
My eyes widened like saucers. When I actually heard this out loud in a meeting it sounded ridiculous. I mean, doctors were treating sick children. They were in and out of surgery and dealing with parents of all world cultures. They were researching disease.
One is often cured of his faults by seeing them in others. Life is a mirror and we find only ourselves reflected in our associates.~Florence Scovel Shinn
But she was only voicing what you and I have both thought at times.
He thinks he’s better — She could’ve at least said Hi
And here’s the second thing.
A kind friend bought me a book a few years ago.
*Pay attention to gifts you receive. They bring a message.*
I didn’t care for the book overall, but there was one new-to-me notion that was meant for me to see.
It said that we are actually spiritual beings living with a human body — rather than the other way around.
Wait, what? My ears perked up.
Something about that subtle distinction made all the difference. It felt like a memory of something I already knew.
This was liberating for me.
The next day someone with a pinched face walked by me in the hall and I remembered this new insight.
I saw them as a perfect spirit, having to lug around a human body with all its problems and worries.
And I felt compassion.
I no longer had to rationalize that it was OK when people didn’t smile back.
This imaging exercise released me from my ego.
