Smile.

/ moragnoffke
Smiling mask, M Noffke

Masks hide our smiles these days. Your Smiling beauty comes from the inside but how do you do that when you have to wear a mask? Your inner attitudes shine through actions. Masks have changed the way we are interpreted and it can feel quite harsh, stern and frosty as they obscure our smiles and other expressions. We still have our eyes and can allow them to speak. When I have my sunglasses on, hiding my eyes as well, I actively nod a courteous greeting or I send an up-beat salutation because I still want to be transmitting love into my world.

We have had a difficult year with new rules and problems arising from Covid 19; adjusting to all this was exhausting. Now, like in other countries, the numbers of the sick in our country rise again and hospitals fill up. It is hard to keep ones sense of humor and our will to social distance has suffered fatigue; some people understandably are feeling “we did it once, we don’t want to do it again.” Yet we do have it in us to respect each other’s safety. I use Creative problem solving to keep my sense of humor going. How are you getting through these tough times?

Covid 19 mask, M Noffke

How do you deal with the issue of masks? Do you miss smiles?

Take care and stay safe.

37 thoughts on “Smile.”

      • Yes 👍I find reason needs to speak to me on a deeper level, there is so much to take into account as we are such complex creatures: personal beliefs and point of view, personal values, attitudes, Feelings, one’s intuition,… Well let’s just say that I wouldn’t want to be the one making the decisions.

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      • Yes I think the older I get the more illusive it can be, even one’s own reasoning can change over time and as circumstances change. I have just been thinking about how our identity is seen as a social construct…and who we really might be, do we really know? But in the end how does anything inform us if we might be so influenced by society. That is what I am aware of… That’s why I need to always think things over, weigh things up from all sides and ask myself if this is really what I want.

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      • I feel exactly the same way and have rejected society. Or rather I have rejected the consumerist and combative hell we have built for ourselves. I suppose I have been strongly influenced by Eastern philosophy. Sometimes I believe I see a light and at others veer towards Camus or, worse, Schopenhauer.

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      • Hmmm lots to talk about when thinking of Albert Camus and his beliefs… Philosophy and existentialism is very interesting although I never studied it formally. My dad was a few years younger than Camus and I think I might have picked up my attitude towards life from him, so I too reject consumerism and aspire for /towards multiculturalism. I am not familiar with Schopenhauer has he had some kind of influence over artists in his time? I should check him out.

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      • Schopenhauer wondered whether it would be better to extinguish life or that children should not be born. There have been times over the years when I resented my own birth. Other times, living up in the mountains in Switzerland, or wandering on a beach here in England, when all seemed right with the world. Camus in the Myth of Sisyphus seems to have reconciled himself to the absurdity of life. With me it seems to be a chemical thing. Chemicals undoubtedly exercise a large influence on which colours my lenses take on.

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      • I am guessing by referring to chemicals you mean in your brain /body? Yes I have seasons of wondering why I was born… If for anything (I used to wish I wasn’t born) but I think I err towards Camus.. I have reconciled myself to the absurdity. I being artistic accept that my view changes with my chemical rise and fall. I have had to learn how to flow with it. Intrinsically I believe I am, that belief carries through it all.

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      • Yes indeed. In my better moods I too side with Camus. Yes, chemicals in the brain and body. Psychedlics can induce ecstasy for instance and facilitate healing according to some research. Alcohol usually achieves the reverse. Are we just our chemicals? Again my views change depending on how I feel. All rather circular!

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      • 😁Yes I know what you mean about it being circular… I have sometimes been tempted to blog about it but because it is so ephemeral I hesitate. I have not experienced psychedelics but know that alcohol is a huge downer… My own fluctuating levels of serotonin are a ride enough 😂 it’s been great comparing thoughts.

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      • You too, I have enjoyed it. We must keep in touch. I gave up alcohol 20 years ago. I have experimented with psychedelics for the past two years. They can switch off the black lenses almost immediately although too much seems to create great fear. On balance I believe they have been very beneficial but perhaps the occasional blast accompanied by tiny regular micro doses is the right way to do it. I have meandered in my blog. When I started in back in 2018 I tended towards polemic on occasion which was rather self destructive. Very recently I have started to write fiction – science fiction because in that sort of milieu you can speculate about what an ideal world of the future might look like. The sort of world forecast by American Physicist Frank Tipler – that makes me feel quite warm and comfortable!

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      • Thank you I am sure we will keep in touch. Blogging is a wonderful medium for expressing, exploring many thoughts and feelings in many different genders, I think story writing, something I haven’t done much of, must be a wonderful way to become immersed in a world of one’s own. I am going to try it some day.

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  3. I happily wear a mask if it helps keep us safe, both ways, but with my hearing not as good as it used to be I rely on lip-reading to help me. Actually, I think most people lip-read without realising it.

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    • Yes I know what you mean, I used to work at a deaf school as a house mother when I left school. It was of the belief then that the children had to learn lip-read and so I also automatically learnt. I also became very aware of using my mouth properly to enunciate the words. I can often look across a big room full of people and watch their lips. I feel like I am eavesdropping. I have to look away sometimes. Well those days are passed for a while, not much partying right now.

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    • 😄I think my husband feels similarly… He feels stifled and suppressed but he also wears it for safety sake. I find it uncomfortable and will also wear it as I suffer from asthma and know what it feels like to really not be able to breathe. So I rather suffer the lesser of two evils. It must be difficult to get children to wear masks?

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      • I think I’m like a little kid live by objection. 😆 I’ve always been comfortable at hone and enjoyed it. But tell me I HAVE to stay home and I don’t want to. 😁

        Our twins too young to wear masks so we hardly ever go out with them. Only when necessary. Especially now with the 2nd wave. We prefer to stay home….. no one need to tell us. 😉

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  8. I love your mask so much!!! Great idea drawing the smile on it. I miss smiles also, and I feel weird not being able to express myself facially while wearing a mask. I do the same thing you do and try to smile with my eyes with the mask on or wave! 😊

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