I have often wondered about smiling, and why it may be difficult for some.
On one of my trips, I was assigned a guide who took care of me. We spoke different languages, but we were able to communicate through the joy he exuded. He made me laugh by imitating the sounds or movements of animals. At other times he would show me something he had discovered to impress me, and he succeeded. His motivation was to accompany me and make every moment special.
Through an interpreter, I asked the guide how old he was because I couldn’t calculate his age, and he answered that he did not know when he was born. Insisting, I asked if he could estimate his age, but he always replied with a smile that he didn’t know. Curious, I asked if truly he was not interested in knowing his age. He replied that he wasn’t and added “I have the present day to live, the past to remember and learn, and the future is uncertain. What would the future be if the present is not lived!”
Looking at him, I saw a different kind of youth: the type born deep within one’s being and revealed in the joyful look that comes from embracing the moment.
When I said goodbye, I thanked him sincerely for his company. I wanted to show my gratitude with a tip – with something that I thought would help him. I put the tip in his hand, but he refused it. When I asked him why, he said: “Your company was the best gift, and that is priceless. I am the one who should thank you for accepting my help.”
His look said it all, expressing heartfelt gratitude. What he valued was sharing and living in the moment. For him, with that smile born from the depths of his heart, every day is a birthday to be celebrated as a unique opportunity to embrace life anew.
For him, it’s not important to count the years or days one has lived, but rather how one has lived them. What a lesson this humble person teaches us! Without academic training, he expressed with profound wisdom the true gift of life. The Lord always knows how to provide us with teachers who touch our hearts and teach us humility: guides who, without seeking recognition, open new horizons and perspectives in life.
What a lesson and what a challenge I received from that guide, a humble person who, with only the experience of life and without sharing my faith, opened my eyes with his wisdom. We worry so much and strive so hard to acquire material goods. We often measure our triumphs by what we possess, not by who we become—by what we have, not by who we are.
One embraces the present in the effort to truly be. However, one lives in the uncertainty of the future in the pursuit of having more. What was the real tip for the guide? The company, not the money. In our anxious striving for more, we forget to be and to smile. Jesus tells us: the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. I believe the guide helped me understand this truth more deeply—not in theory, but in a real, tangible way.
What truly matters is how we live each day to its fullest, striving to become the person God created us to be. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world if, in doing so, he loses the Kingdom of Heaven? A smile is an expression of gratitude and of the peace within the heart that embraces daily the challenge of being, rather than having. When our attention turns solely to accumulating, the smile fades, priorities shift, and we risk losing sight of others – we risk losing sight of the Kingdom of Heaven. So, what should we do?
Let us live our day as a gift, embrace our faith as a source of healing, and experience our life as an encounter with that Kingdom of Heaven that is already at hand!