Smiles - Connecting People

As I walked past his table, I can't help but sense that someone was watching me.

Sure enough, peeking between my curtain of hair,

I caught him staring at me, oh so intently.

Never have I ever been stared at like that before.

And when he saw me looking at him, his face lit up with a smile so bright.

A twisted, crooked, almost sinister-looking smile,

yet so beautiful and radiant,

a smile I'd never forget.

I knelt beside him, and asked for his name,

He asked me whether I would be kind enough to help put on his shoes for him.

I didn't quite understand most of his words,

And I don't think he understood mine,

nor did I find out what happened to him in the past that led him to where he is right now with his condition.

But this I know:

Being born with cerebral palsy,

Life hasn't been a bed of roses for him,

And no one would ever ever call him beautiful.

But to be able to smile like that,

I think he's beautiful.

I sat next to him the entire morning, silently working on the pile of tubes the cerebral palsy people were supposed to work on.

But we didn't mind the silence. It wasn't awkward.

Smiling, that was the language we both understood well.

Most people don't realize this, but being born normal, is actually a miracle in itself.

BUT then again, who's to define what's normal, what isn't?

=')

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