By

Gerry Niskern

She goes by every day, sometimes twice. She’s about three months old and travels by stroller, escorted sometimes by siblings on scooters.

If I’m lucky enough to be out at the time her mother stops for a minute and  I’m rewarded with a perfect angels smile punctuated by two big dimples. “Can I touch her?” I asked. Her little bare foot felt like the finest silk. She was plump and perfect, but wait! When she realized her chariot wasn’t moving the angelic face turned into a cry.

Her grin brightens my day, but then I started thinking about something. With everyone wearing a mask babies don’t realize that you are looking kindly or smiling at them. You see, everyone knows that babies experience love and delight thru facial expressions.  Many articles have been written about babies having issues with emotional recognition and social interaction. I hope my new little friend sees my eyes smiling at her.

But smiling eyes are not just important for the many new babies this year.We have a brand new year starting today and we can all help make it a more pleasant and optimistic one.

Sure we will all still be wearing our masks for quite a while longer, but let’s stop complaining and make sure the eyes that people see above are smiling eyes.