This is my third word for the letter S;  on Saturday I did an early S with R  because our UK Government is messing with our School Curriculum and I wanted people to read, and hopefully sign, a petition about the importance of  training young people to work in Agriculture and Horticulture.  Early this morning my scheduled blog about Solitude was posted.  I have just decided to add a third about Smiling.

On Friday afternoon I broke the side off one of my canine teeth, leaving a sharp point which catches on the inside of my mouth;  I decided against using one of the emergency dentists on duty over the weekend and left a message at my usual dental practice.  It hurts when I eat, it hurts when I talk but worst of all it hurts when I smile. I had not realized how many times something makes me smile during the day until smiling hurt so much. No big deal I hear you thinking, everybody smiles.

I was knocked sideways by chronic fatigue syndrome about twenty years ago and it took me four years to recover sufficiently to feel that I was living a full life again.  It always lurks in the background and takes an occasional swipe at me;  at least now most members of the medical profession accept that it exists.  At the time I succumbed to cfs, after working on while having flu, not only some professionals but even people I had thought were good friends accused me of being lazy, making a fuss, getting out of doing things I didn’t like doing etc.  How could anyone think that sleeping for sixteen hours out of every twenty-four was fun?  When I started getting better I was told that I had hardly smiled during those years.

I am off to see my lovely dentist this afternoon and he will make me better very quickly; life is horrid when it hurts to smile.