A tiny ripple creased the smooth skin on the brow of little
Max. He had just completed 18 weeks of life and things were happening fast. He
was no longer always with Mom or Dad. He did not quite know what to think or,
for that matter, did he know how to
think, for he had no word concepts. He could not form such a thought as: "Don't
you dare pinch my cheeks with your nasty red claw nails," or "Ahhh,
that feels so cozy I think I will just relax and take a nap."
And so the ripples flitted across his brow, quivered his
chin, squinched up his eyes and erupted into howls in his very own language -- sometimes
as hard for adults to decipher as it was for baby Max to interpret their looks,
their fawning love and their rapt amazement at his tiny perfect toes or their
own creased brows when his distress was relieved by a burp or a gassy poof from
his diaper.
One thing Max knew, though -- no doubt about it -- with or
without word concepts, was that a smile was a good thing, a friendly gesture that
was meant to entertain and elicit a response.
And so he opened his tiny mouth and slowly curved his miniature lips
into a responding smile. A smile begat a smile and a relationship was born.
Words would come in due time. Max in his newborn wisdom wished
(though he did not yet know what a "wish" was) that this ... this
smile ... would last forever. That too
would come in due time, with those who love and cherish Max moving heaven and
earth to keep those smiles -- those
relationships -- intact. Words are not always needed; feelings trump words and Max’s
world, not yet complicated by the vagaries of spoken language, knew only
feelings ... warm blankets, a secure, milky embrace, a new texture, new sounds
and sights designed to amuse and teach but sometimes scary. Yet the smiles
rained on him and delighted his accumulating days.
If only he could tell you how important a smile is.
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