As villages, towns, neighborhoods and cities open up, most of us will be learning how to interact and communicate with each other in a new way – with a mask. When one is wearing a mask, one loses a majority of their ability in using their facial expressions to communicate. We do not see the smile, the frown, the laughter and many other facial expressions we use as reaction or as a way to say something. That being said, I have been pleasantly surprised how people are showing their smiles through their masks.
As I ‘re-enter’ the world, I have been fortunate to experience so many simple acts of kindness from the people I have interacted with at stores, professional areas of business and even just walking in town. What has been a real pleasant surprise is the effort people are making to show you their smile using their words. People are saying hi when before they never did. People are asking more about how your day is or how you are, when before there was never the need to do so.
What I hope the use of a mask is forcing us to do, is to be more conscious of the words we are using and to listen with intent. I will have more on this in my next thought-for-the-week.
I hope this will last as I am enjoying the effort people are making to make sure they are communicating with a smile and me listening to the content and not the emotional facial expression.
thought for the week 
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