Smile like a baby!

Why do you smile back at a baby?

Whether you're young, old, rough, gentle, male or female, your heart melts when a baby beams a smile at you.  You turn soft in face of a genuine smile of innocence, warmth, and purity of heart and mind.

Babies naturally smile during sleep or in the process of falling asleep from the day they’re born. An interesting inborn behavior that is void of emotional content. After a month, babies smile in response to social interaction - auditory stimuli before visual. It’s delightful to watch a small curve of the lips signaling the beginning of a developmental journey that transforms an innate reflex into an expression of joy.

Why do we smile?

In our complex society, people smile for all sorts of reasons, only one of which is to signal happiness. Many kinds of smiles come from our feelings – the fear smile, the dampened smile, the contempt smile, the miserable smile, nervous smile, etc.

Psychologist Dr David Lewis said that a happy smile can trigger powerful emotions that help us remember other happy events and make us feel good  -  optimistic, positive and motivated. He also pointed out that a fake smile can be detected and construed as untrustworthy and hypocritical.

This is what French anatomist Duchenne de Boulogne wrote about the happy smile: “The emotion of frank joy is expressed on the face by the combined contraction of the zygomaticus major muscle and the orbicularis oculi.” He also concluded that “… fake joy, the deceitful laugh, cannot provoke the contraction of this latter muscle.. . .The muscle around the eye does not obey the will; it is only brought into play by a true feeling, by an agreeable emotion.”

In the Scientific American article, The Mirror Neuron Revolution: Explaining What Makes Humans Social, neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni explains: “. .. we are hardwired to smile, a real smile can’t be faked and it is contagious because our brains have mirror neurons that make us “simulate” within ourselves the states of others around us.”

As a universal language expressed in the form of a gesture that greets and welcomes other people, a smile can make all the difference in the world. It creates an atmosphere of unity and camaraderie. A smile of joy brings sunshine to the sad, hope to the discouraged, and rest to the weary.

Most importantly, a smile is contagious, just like laughter. So, pass it on…

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Sunrise Inspires Each Day

“With each sunrise, we start anew”

Life begins again at sunrise.

In a year, you could see the sunrise 365 times if the sky is clear. By the time you reach 65 years old, you could enjoy watching the sunrise 23,725 times. No matter how many times you've seen the sunrise, watching it each time leaves you calm, pensive, happy, hopeful or just plain awestruck by its magnificence.

In space, we know that the earth rotating on its axis around the sun looks the same from day to day. But on the earth, the sunrise paints the sky with surprisingly splendid art form that photographers and artists for centuries have been trying to capture or duplicate in their masterpieces.

The sunrise frames the sky dome differently in each season as it emerges in vivid colors with various surrounding cloud patterns. You know that sunrise varies from day to day depending on the location,
ambiance, and your mood when viewing it.

Moment to moment of sunrise

The transition of night into day is one of the most inspirational and miraculous of all phenomena in the vast universe. The entire spectacle of sunrise begins at the moment of greatest darkness, midway between sunset and sunrise with billions of stars still twinkling overhead at night. Then, darkness slowly begins to wane as more and more stars begin to fade when dim whiteness edges up the horizon in the east.

As the whiteness intensifies and spreads across the sky over hours of time, a touch of orange glows in the horizon. The light of dawn changes from white to yellows, then blending into reds, and other
rainbow colors become more perceptible. Dust, moisture, and clouds also leave their traces as pigments to the celestial palette in the open dome.

The intensity of light builds, then brilliance flares as the sun emerges in the horizon. At this moment, the temperature of the air changes, breezes blow, morning dew condenses on leaves... and LIFE awakens! The color, sound  and energy expressed in that one tiny moment  is awe-inspiring. As the ground warms, life responds in a glorious symphony - birds sing melodies, leaves rustle in the light breeze, flowers bloom in the direction of the sunrays, a rooster crows in the distance, etc.

Because sunrise holds such wonderful promises, many people around the world watch the sunrise on New Year's Day. It's a time to make new wishes, start a new year with hope or renew life with a fresh beginning.

In the same vein, you can watch a beautiful sunrise to start anew each day.  Look forward to every new thing you see, feel, smell, and taste. Look at your worries and troubles with a new understanding, perspective or approach in finding a solution. Life is a joy when you can celebrate it every day!

And it's the sunrise that brings a new beginning to life!

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Japan: A trend of heart-felt giving

It's heartwarming to read story after story of anonymous donors under pseudonyms give from the heart to the needy and the underprivileged children in Japan. It appears to be an inspiring trend of spreading material wealth, love, and good cheers among the Japanese.

So far, over 300 anonymous donations as charity gifts ranging from school bags to food, and even cash have appeared at facilities for underprivileged children and at public places under the names of cartoon heros since the Christmas season to almost 100 locations across Japan.

Donors identified themselves under different names - Date Naoto: a cartoon pro wrestler, "Tiger Mask", who uses part of his earnings for anonymous donations to the orphanage where he grew up;  Yabuki Joe, a working-class cartoon boxer; Momotaro: a Japanese folklore "peach boy" hero who beats up terrible demons; and Kimottama-Kasan, a TV drama heroine.

Even cash is left at times with a note: "Do not think of bad things, have a pure heart and be encouraged in all manner of good deeds."

What a wonderful way to start a new year!

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The magic of the oldest living tree

Trees have been known to be some of the longest living organisms on Earth. In general, trees rarely die of old age like humans do, but they can die from insect infestation and environmental destruction,
such as forest fires, logging or construction.

A single tree able to that stand on its own for millennia, witnessing the rise and fall of civilizations, surviving climate changes, and enduring the escalating development of human industrial destruction of our environment is nothing short of a miracle. Its symbol of beauty, peace and strength is a testament to what Mother Nature does at her best.

Such awesome living thing is probably the world's oldest tree, Sunland Baobab, which stands 22 meters tall and is around 47 meters in circumference, "the record holder for the species", according to the SA Dendrological Society. Unlike most trees with consistent annual growth rings, this tree has had its age carbon dated to approximately 6,000 years.

As the largest succulent plant in the world, the baobab tree can provide food, water, shelter and healing from sickness. It is steeped in mystique, legend and superstition in Africa - as traces of evidence of Bushmen and Voortrekkers found in the hollow center floor of the tree.

Although a Baobab tree seldom exceeds a height of 25 meters, the massive cylindrical trunk gives rise to numerous tapering branches that resemble a root-system -- earning its nickname as the "upside-down" tree.

The largest widespread variety is the Adonsonia Digitata, found in 20 sub Saharan countries. As a deciduous tree, Baobab blooms in spring and loses its hand-sized 5 leaflets in winter.

The large white flowers are pendulous and emerge for only a day. The large egg-shaped fruit consists of a hard outer shell on the outside and a dry, white powdery substance covering the seeds on the inside. The white powdery substance - rich in calcium, anti-oxidants, and vitamin C - is mixed with water or milk as a drink to treat fevers and other ailments. The seeds also produce edible oil.

Interestingly, large Baobab trees with hollow stems have served bees and humans for centuries. Honey bees have being using them to make their hives while people have been using them as homes, prisons, bars, rainwater well, and even storage.

An entity that exists on the earth with rich resources to give to humanity and to nature is not just inspirational but also very magical!

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