Creating social change through play, laughter and levity

          Part of why I love The Levity Project is not only in bringing amazing people together to do events, but it is the more subtle side of how it affects my life in the days in between all the fun we get to create in public. I love being reminded that The Levity Project started because of an unexpected moment in which I woke up to the idea I create change in how I choose to live each day.

         And this week, in the middle of creating The Smile Micro-movement with The Levity Project Team, I experienced such a reminder of "Yahoo! Each one of us DOES makes a difference in the world!!!"

         I was driving through the streets of Portland, Maine absorbed in my own thoughts as I prepared for an upcoming meeting. Stopping at a red light, my gaze turned to a man in a parked car next to me. With his window rolled down, the man stared off vacantly. Several teeth were missing and his hair was partly matted down and partly disheveled. He looked as if life had offered him much hardship. Sensing me looking at him, he turned to face me. I turned away in a knee jerk response. I was instantly embarrassed at how I had responded. Was it because I was staring or because it was hard to see someone who was in a such a hard space in their life? What I do know is that I found myself thinking the words often said at The Levity Project, "We are all agents of change."  It was that echo which nudged me to do something different that what I might have done before.

        I looked back at the man and when our eyes met this time, I smiled a big relaxed smile, noticing for the first time, his clear and strikingly beautiful blue eyes. The deep wrinkles in his face relaxed giving way to a remarkable smile. All I could think was:

  This is what the joy of connection looks like.

       No sooner had this moment happened, then I noticed a man on the street corner. He looked both hurried and  intrigued holding his coffee mug waiting to cross the street. He was looking right at me, maybe because I had this huge grin on my face for what must have seemed to him for no reason.

       Seeing my smile, which had initially been directed elsewhere, caused him to smile at me and me at him and there I was, in this beautiful moment which had moments before been a picture of  three isolated individuals living our own separate lives but were now  three momentary neighbors joyfully connected together by the simple exchange of a smile. It made me marvel again at the power and the effect of a single act.

      The light turned green and I drove away still smiling and feeling the levity of the moment. So, I did what any good  and curious player with The Levity Project might do…I turned up my favorite music of the day and started smiling broadly at everyone I saw.  And what happened in the next moment was unreal to me.

      Everyone who saw me smiling smiled back!

  Two people on opposite sides of the street smiled at each other when they realized they were both smiling at me.  A young child waved, her parents smiled. A man looked up from his newspaper. At another stoplight, a fellow driver winked and smiled. And my favorite one was outside a small corner convenience store where a couple, who were in the middle of an argument, saw me smiling at them and they paused long enough return the grin. It made me wonder if it was harder to argue when they looked back at each other and were suddenly smiling for no reason!

     What I was reminded of in that small moment which lasted no more than a few minutes is that smiling really is incredibly powerful.   No common language is needed. There are no age barriers or physical ability requirements. There is no discrimination on who can do it.  You do not need to worry about doing it well or being the best.  All it takes is a willingness to look at someone and do what we all desire but fear the most-connect.

    How can you create "the smile effect" in your life this week? 

• By making a goal to smile at 50 people a day.
• Choosing to smile at people when you arrive at your office or at your home.
• Intentionally think about things in your life that cause you to smile.

OR…

• You could join The Levity Project in Maine on JULY 16th for our fun upcoming event: Maine's Longest Smile (to participate-you must register here…http://thelevityprojectmaine.eventbrite.com/ )
  

However, you choose to do it, thank you for being the agent of change you are!

And please share HOW you did it with us to share the inspiration.

Rock on,

Katie

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