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the Challenged

This publication is a place for writers who enjoy a challenge.

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A Smile Is The Best Makeup

3 min readJun 1, 2026

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Great food and wine… I couldn’t be happier Photo by Ross Gangemi

May 31: National Smile Day: Smiles are powerful! The more a person smiles, the healthier their brain can be. Smiling has a direct link to our brain and can help to reduce stress. Just one smile can brighten someone’s day. It can also improve your day. Smiles are infectious. Share a photo of your best smile. (Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles)

I could write a self-help book on the power of the smile. Don’t panic. I’m not going to. But I truly believe a real smile is the greatest power we have.

Before I met my third partner in 2002, I didn’t really know how to smile genuinely for a photo, but my partner was a professional photographer and knew how to make people smile. He actually knew how to make me (and most people) laugh. He’s on the spectrum, and he’s a kook.

When I laugh, the captured smile in the photo is actually me laughing. I have hundreds, perhaps thousands, of photos of me laughing, mostly from when I was travelling. One of my daughters is an amateur photographer, so there are heaps of photos of us together, or as part of a family photograph collection.

The lead photo was the first one I saw of one of those ME collections. The last photo was taken under duress. Jamie always wanted to take photos of Keeley and me just as we were walking out the door. So maddening. Keeley…

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In my retirement, I enjoy editing for writers other than my children. My main roles are Editor of the Challenged and True Travel Tales. I also like to write.

the Challenged
the Challenged

Published in the Challenged

This publication is a place for writers who enjoy a challenge.