**Assalamualaikum wa Rahmatullah!** Have you ever walked through a street that once echoed with laughter, but now feels like a graveyard of emotions? Thick air-filled streets where statue-like individuals pass by and no one dares to smile? In the past, our streets were alive with laughing, gossip, goodbyes, and kids chasing kites. It became commonplace to smile. Even strangers would nod kindly. All of that is now but a relic from the past. ![30836.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmVEjFFVkKMfYNwkBLcVZ45BpernNK5NTgrpnfoFBbFxCM/30836.jpg) _{[source ]( https://www.freepik.com/free-ai-image/dirty-streets-graffiti-walls-chaotic-city-life-generated-by-ai_42190086.htm#fromView=search&page=1&position=0&uuid=e8546a86-76b4-4d0f-81df-ce7df27021d1&query=Streets+)} What happened to us? Is it stress? Is it fear? Or is it the burden of surviving in a society where emotions are too expensive to show? We do not like to look at each other. We cast down our eyes because we are tired not humbled. We rush to not be connected but to a point of pleasure. We use phones as armor-- avoiding reality to be in the virtual world. Smiling in this age is like insurgency, it is as though we are defying an unspoken rule that says, keep some distance. Stay cold.” However, a smile is influential. It is silent compassion. It does not require effort, but awareness. A smile is capable of mollifying pain, interfering cultures and it is even capable of reviving someone who might be running some battle through a silent door. I recall an elderly man in our street who sold fruit, he was wrinkled, poor and yet smiling. His stall was small, and his fire spread all down the street. People did not only buy fruits, they actually went out to see his smile. And to-day he lies dead. Then the soul of that corner is. ![giphy.gif](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmX76nJ5SCystvL1A7SyZAvjtP6753Aq621Tfydj2hcH7d/giphy.gif) _{[source ]( https://giphy.com/gifs/stoner-sees-isopropyl-xSM46ernAUN3y )} Let’s not forget how human we are. Next time you are out, try it — just a small smile at a shopkeeper , a child, an old woman passing by🥴. Watch how hearts respond. Let’s bring life back to our streets — one smile at a time. Because even if the world forgets to smile… **…you don’t have to.**🤐 Regards artist1111