Does your face shine with sunbeams?

Roald Dahl wrote, "If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely."

I love this vivid metaphoric image.  For all of my life, I have been told I have a telegraphic face.  I think that is most likely good and bad.

I think it is good because I try very hard each day to exude positivity.  I make a point to smile at our high school students from when they enter in the morning and throughout the day.  I am cognizant that for some students we may be the only positive interaction in the day, the only sunbeam they will see.  I think the same way about our interactions with staff and parents.  Even on days where we may not be having a "good" day, we are creating first and lasting impressions with just our faces.  If we shine like sunbeams, we can often turn a possibly negative situation into a positive one.

But try as I may, there are times both at work and at home when my sunbeams do not shine and my face shows the stress or discomfort of the moment.

I think that is why I love the beauty of this quote.  I keep it on my desk to remind me to let my good thoughts shine in my face.

I also appreciate those people that I encounter during my day at school who also let their good thoughts shine in their faces for all of us to enjoy.  Those people who never seem to let a cloud block their sunbeams, who never let negativity or negative people change their positive countenance.  I love being around these people and appreciate the sunshine they bring to life with their faces.

In my family, I am blessed to have a daughter, husband, and son-in-law who are all known by others for the good thoughts in their hearts and the sunbeams on their faces.  There is rarely a day that goes by that someone does not mention their great smiles to me.

During this spring break week, I carry good thoughts of  things that I know will make sunbeams shine on my face:

1. Looking into my husband's eyes.  I cherish each time and have for the last 36 years.

2. Taking time to play my piano.  It is the same one that I have had since my childhood when we got it free and brought it home from New Lexington in the back of a pickup truck, nearly losing the load.  I am certain that the person who got rid of a piano they likely no longer needed would never guess the joy and goodness it has brought to my life of having it for over 50 years in every home I have known. Playing the old songs brings back memories of the favorite songs that my grandma, my Dad, and my boyfriend-turned-husband loved hearing over and over again.

3. Traveling back "home" to Marietta with my daughter.  Though we only visit Mom and Dad in the cemetery now, seeing life and home again through my daughter's eyes is a joy that will surely make my face shine.  We will stay at the Hotel Lafayette, walk the levee along the mighty Ohio River, cross the footbridge across the Muskingum River to our favorite old diner, and browse the Front Street shops.  It always brings tears to our eyes, but reinforces the love in our hearts.

4. Down time.  Spring break brings time to linger over some poetry to inspire my heart, time in the evenings to curl up on the couch, time to clean that which never gets done -- or not.  Time to write notes to those I know deserve them so much but I rarely take the time to let know.

5. The gift of time.  To generate good thoughts so that sunbeams will shine on my face.