Did you know February 7 was “Wave All Your Fingers at Your Neighbors” Day?

My first thought was: Why didn’t they just call it “Wave at Your Neighbors” Day? However, as I read more about it, I learned that some people might give their disliked neighbors a one-finger wave. So to make sure that didn’t happen, the couple responsible for this special day’s creation spelled it out to prevent any misunderstanding.

My second thought was: Waving is a powerful action, especially when accompanied by a smile. I doubt many of us consider how our gesture will affect the person on the receiving end. We just wave. It’s almost automatic, having been drilled into us since childhood. Still, it’s important to recognize these gestures do affect others.

The Wave

Several summers ago, during one of Mom and Dad’s visits, Dad and I were outside working in the yard. The house just past mine was for sale again, and we’d watched several cars drive down my little dead-end street to check it out. We smiled and waved as each passed, and each time I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the car that carried my new neighbors.

Fast forward a few months . . . The house sold and the new neighbors—a three-generation family, also Texans—moved in. Soon after our initial meeting, they told me the smiles and waves my dad and I had given them that day had made a difference. We’d become a “check” in that house’s “pro” column, assuring them of at least one house of nice neighbors.

Final Smile and Wave

If you’ve ever watched the movie, Princess Diaries, you know there is a “proper” way to wave. I think any hand-waving technique is fine. (Other than that one-finger salute.) So share your waves and smiles often. Don’t limit them to your neighbors . . . and certainly not to just one day a year.

Bonus “Smile” Did You Knows…

• Did you know smiling helps you stay healthy? It helps your immune system function better. Using both eye and mouth muscles helps lower heart rate, relieve anxiety, and ease tension.
• Did you know a smile not only changes your mood for the better but other people’s moods, too?
• Did you know even fake smiles improve your mood? The physical act of smiling taps into positive memories associated with the action and makes you feel better.
• Did you know humans are attracted to people who smile?
• Did you know even up to 300 feet away, people can perceive a smile? It’s the human expression most recognizable.
• Did you know smiles, like yawns, are contagious? Do your best to infect everyone around you.

Who Can Tell The Value
Poet: James Conway Jackson

 

Who can tell the value of a bright and sunny smile?
A smile of cheerful fellowship, without deceit or guile;
A smile of kindly welcome or pure untrammeled love
Lifts hearts that are bowed in sorrow to sublime heights above.

 

Who can tell the value of a real, sweet friendly smile?
A smile that makes you happy and makes life seem worthwhile.
There’s many a soul that’s straying and there’s many a soul that’s lost.
When just one smile might save them, and oh, so small the cost!

 

We can tell the value of a smile by whom ’tis given;
It makes us suffer torments or lifts our souls to heaven.
So let us keep on smiling bright and cheerful while we live,
For the world will be made happier by each bright smile we give.