An Unexpected Smile
On the Small Things That Change Everything
Fatigue in my body.
Heaviness in my head.
A missed connection.
I’d spent the night
in an uncomfortable position.
Physically.
Emotionally.
The kind of night that never really ends.
On the plane I finally boarded,
exhausted,
I let myself slip
into sleep.
A light touch woke me.
A hand on my shoulder.
I opened my eyes.
And there…
A wide smile was waiting for me.
It was a flight attendant.
He was waking me
because it was mealtime.
But his smile,
in that exact moment,
had already fed me.
A little.
Enough.
More than enough.
It carried a softness.
A care.
A quiet humanity.
Like a gentle light
in a dark hallway.
I remembered it for a long time.
Long after the trip.
Long after I’d forgotten the meal.
Practice smiling.
Often.
For no reason.
At yourself,
in the mirror in the morning.
At others,
without calculation.
Without expecting anything in return.
So today…
offer a smile.
To a friend.
To a parent.
To your daughter.
Your son.
Your grandmother.
A sister.
A brother.
And also — maybe most of all — to a stranger.
The day,
yours and theirs,
will be made better.
Because an unexpected smile
sometimes has the power
to change everything.
-- Sosthène
On the Small Things That Change Everything - Text 2
About the Creator
Sosthène Nsimba
Writer of short texts and quiet observations.
I write about what we feel before we know how to name it — moments, silences, conflicts, and small shifts that change something inside.
Writing from Africa.
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'20/20'
"Do It Again" the track that would ultimately open the Beach Boys final album on Capitol Records which was released on February 10th 1969 had originally been released as a single in August of 1968. The track was the first of many post-Pet Sounds era throwbacks to the early Beach Boys sound which would become continually more cliched and eventually lead the Beach Boys to the level of self-parody they would eventually succumb to in the 1980s while their closest contemporaries The Beatles nearing the end of their run in 1969 would go on to be viewed as the most influential band of all time. However, the song itself is not bad on its surface, and it opens with a futuristic sounding (for 1969) drumbeat captured by then-Beach Boys engineer Stephen Desper using tape delays on the drums performed by Dennis Wilson and John Guerin. The song has been re-recorded numerous times over the years on various Beach Boys-related projects most notably the 2011 re-recording at Capitol studios featuring the five surviving Beach Boys at the time backed instrumentally by various members of both the Brian Wilson Band and Mike Loves touring "Beach Boys" to promote the then upcoming Beach Boys 50th Anniversary reunion tour in 2012. The hammering and power drill sound at the end of the song was an excerpt from a track called "Workshop" that was to be a part of the uncompleted "SMiLE" album.
By Sean Callaghan6 days ago in Beat
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