The challenge of a smile

So, mid conversation last night a friend challenged me to spend the day smiling more, laughing more - exuberant I think was the word that began it all. We were talking about what it takes to make me and them excited or some might say 'pumped'. I know I have mentioned joy before somewhere back in the archives of this blog, less mentioned is the difficulty I have with having fun. It takes a lot to get Rebecca excited about something. Things will facinate me, amuse me, make me smile, laugh and I can be happy with out a huge amount of difficulty, sure this is dependant upon all manner of things, but getting excited about something takes an awful lot of I don't know what. I don't know how well I suceeded with the whole 'get excited about something' deal, but being intentional about smiling more, laughing more, being more silly etc... was interesting, a heck of a lot of fun and maybe a little exciting. I spent the morning with Jess VW and Laura, we went to see "Mrs. Henderson Presents" (Judi Dench). A film that has attracted an audience almost exclusively of old people. It was brilliant! Despite the rather large amount of nudity (context of course :P) which is really the kind of humor that does not appeal to me in the slightest - it was funny, clever, unpredictable and delightfully deep. I don't usually expect to come out of a comedy with anything much to think about, but it dug up a heap of potential thought matter around ethics and what you should allow under certain circumstances. The only thing uncomfortable about the movie was the fact that I had a prime example of Bec the klutz right before it all started, and spilt my drink right where you don't want to spill it. So I spent the movie in wet jeans, with paper towel, sitting on a complimentary The Age and the hope that I'd be half decent before the lights came back on - I was. Hurrah. So I laughed at the movie. I found the drink spilling amusing as I was in a good mood. I found no particular reason at all to smile while going through the shopping centre after (but did anyway) - oh, maybe the fact that I was having what some females might call a 'pretty day' which basically at the moment constitutes not walking around in a grandma, tent like dymocks shirt in public. If you start smiling for no reason it doesn't take much to remember/realise something you should be smiling about. Test the theory. Lets see, what else... teased Laura (with Jess's help) good naturedly rather a lot. Was in a make joking comments mood blah blah blah. and so was cheerful, slightly more alert and generally felt better. Went back to Jess's via Word bookstore, where I got an absolute bargain of a book, one that I've had my eyes on for months: Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller $8!!!! We got chicken satay pizza with pineapple and watched several episodes of Alias. I am far too hooked on that show. I just then, went to Amazon to read some reviews on Blue Like Jazz, there is a mixed bag despite the overall 4 star rating. I doubt it would appeal to everyone. Face someone my age with it though, in comparison to say - well something written with a modern slant (as a lot of Christian books are) and it wins by miles, or should I say kilometres. Conversational, story filled, engaging. I like it. I should never go read bad reviews or it'll spoil the book. Hmph. So yes. The challenge of a smile. Thank you immensely to the challenger :) I shall have to do it more often, it proved for a far more enjoyable day than might have been otherwise. I smiled one or two for you.