Can you see it?

I was eating lunch with my roommate when I saw it. Forever will it remain with me.

I've seen thousands of smiles in my lifetime. I've heard thousands of laughs.

But never have I seen such a sight as I saw that day.

The restaurant was chaotic. Employees were annoyed. Customers were irate.

With one exception.

It was an accident. I glanced away from my roommate's attention for a split second to look for our server with our food.

In my ever-human state of flawed existence, the sight I witnessed filled me instantly with jealousy. But the after taste was indescribably inspirational.

Two Tables away.
Not ten feet from where I sat.

She stood out from the customers seated around her. Alone at her table, still without her food.

Without a newspaper or a magazine.

Without a cigarette or a cell phone.

She sat by herself, looking through the window behind me. She must have been 70 years old. Perhaps a widow. She wore a wedding band and an engagement ring.

Elbows on the table, she held her head with brittle hands I imagined hosted arthritis from their experience.

There was nothing special about this lady.
She wasn't a movie star and she was probably plain to look at in her youth. She was "normal."

Her smile was no wider than yours or mine. Her teeth no whiter. Her lips no fuller.

She seemed entranced with the scene outside the restaurant, though nothing unordinary took place.

On her face, a smile so genuine, so pure, you'd think she'd won a lottery!

Upon seeing this sight, I'm sure many people would poke fun at her smile into nothingness. They'd call her senile, perhaps. But I saw something else.

I saw a woman who, however detrimental a life she may have led, understands something I don't.

She saw past insecurity, hatred, violence, fear, money, stress, superficiality, dishonesty, famine, war, genocide, and lost hope.

She looked through a window and into a world that many of us never will see.

I followed her eyes with my own, trying to capture where she looked. But I couldn't find this place.

One day I hope I will...

How do you see the world around you? Does it make you smile?