Wherever our attention lands becomes our reality of the moment. Positive thoughts lift our shoulders and the corners of our mouths. When sad thoughts dominate, our posture droops with our mood. Even childhood memories and imagined scenarios create responses in our bodies – sometimes joy, pleasure, confusion, fear, sadness, anger, or even apathy. My reaction to this is… really? It doesn’t seem to matter whether thoughts are truth or fantasy – dwelling on them affects us deeply.

This veterans’ day our thoughts go to individuals – either drafted or volunteer – who wore the uniform of our armed forces. They gave all or a portion of their lives in service to this nation and its allies. Whether our veterans survived their military service, or were lost on the field of battle, each of us owes a debt of gratitude to each of them and their families.

A world of information is literally at our fingertips – only an app* away. Recently I was startled to read about Blinkist, a new book-synthesizing app. My curiosity aroused, I wanted to learn more about apps – some free, others not – each offering to bring information as close as the smart instrument you’re using to read this blog.

Many of us are familiar with The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince), a wonderful book by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. This whimsical story entertains us as a children’s novella, then later surprises us as a thought-provoking adult fable. Saint-Exupéry was a fighter pilot who fought against the Nazis and was killed in action. Before World War II, he fought in the Spanish Civil War against the Fascists. Saint-Exupéry wrote many books and short stories. The piece below caught my interest. It’s called The Smile (Le Sourire), and it reminds us about the power of a smile. Here's my edited version of the story.