But I Smile Anyway…



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Sometimes I people watch.

Yes me. I don’t always talk to everyone, honestly! Sometimes I like to observe, to see the world around me, and the people sharing it with me. 

It’s an eye opener, sometimes in a wonderful way, sometimes not so great…

The interaction of a mother with her child, hugs and kisses, a look of delight as a surprise ice cream Is deposited in a small chubby hand… But then you get the opposite, the mother screaming at her kids for misbehaving, or even swearing at them, or heaven forbid, giving them a clip round the ear hole… And that one in between where you can see so obviously that mum hasn’t got a clue, or has just given up, as the kids career around causing mayhem for the surrounding crowds!

The beautiful moments observing a family, parents and children together. Amusing when it mirrors your own situation, oh look there is two crazy children, and mummy trying to regain all semblance of control, and there’s daddy, sauntering ahead, oblivious to the havoc being reeked behind him. Or you might see visions of that ‘perfect’ family, where it seems that all is sweetness and light, a child holding the hands of each parent, swinging along happily, no fuss, and smiles abound from each face.

You might observe a couple, and from their demeanour, guess whether they are in the fresh flushes of romance, or past that stage, a bit more jaded, married or just friends… It’s interesting to wonder that their story might be.

I see old people and they can delight me, seeing, perhaps, an elderly couple, still holding hands, or the woman holding the proffered arm of her husband, and they support each other. A true product of the generation who didn’t ‘throw away’ broken things, they ‘mended’ them. Who knows what they might have been through in their lives! Then I see the flip side of the coin, that old person, walking slowly along, possibly with the support of a stick or a frame, and nothing else. No other companion. Looking lonely, needing company. Will they be going home to an empty house? Or is there someone at home waiting for them?

One thing people watching has taught me though is that first impressions can be deceiving… 

You know, that dad who seemed to be oblivious to his child’s tantrums… Actually he came back, with something to help calm the child down. That mum who was giving her child ‘what for’ on the street, hugging her child, as she had only shouted out of worry, he was about to run into the road. That perfect couple looking so in love, then you notice the fella giving other women the eye as he walked past… Not so perfect, eh! Or that elderly old man, turning a corner and greeting someone who looks like a grandchild, and happily taking their hand to walk the rest of the way home.

It gives me hope, sometimes. Sometimes it makes me thankful of what I have. But inevitably it gives me inspiration…



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