Keep smiling

“Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened.”

-       Dr. Seuss

Did you know that Dr. Seuss wasn’t actually a doctor? Yet he’s still quoted around the world for his great and simple insight into human beings and relationships through his children’s stories and artwork. Dr. Seuss was just a pen name he came up with incorporating his middle name. Officially he was Theodor Seuss Geisel. But not having a doctorate on a paper did not make him any less of a genius than he was.

He was known for his positivity and optimism and his inspiration to look for the good in all things and people. It wasn’t like Dr. Seuss didn’t know what it was to suffer. He’d made mistakes in his life, big ones and very grown-up, adulterated ones. But he got one of his greatest life lessons from them that he imparted to the world through his literature, which was to simply smile and move forward. Life might not be great, we might not be where we really want to be or who we want to be; but maybe if we just smile and push through, we’ll get through it alright.

In its entirety, life is too beautiful – albeit, too unpredictable – to cry over what could have, should have, or would have been. Our smile often stems from our joy, but every once in a while maybe we should just smile for the hell of it and let our joy stem from the miracle that it is to be alive (and able to smile).