Smile, you are on your smartphone, and on your Facebook page, and in a tweet, and an Instagram, and in a text, and…

I love selfies, and as I write that, I’m surprised that there is a squiggly red line under the word, selfie.  I mean, by now it should have been awarded space in the dictionary.  It’s everywhere and it’s annoying a lot of people.  And I guess if everyday you are flooding Facebook with multiple selfies, then, I can see the point, but on the other hand, how cool is it that there is this photo record of life going on with the people you love?

I like selfies because it proves I was there, one, and you can snap like 100 till you get one that everyone in the picture likes, two, and it shows life in photos instead of just words, three.  We’ve moved from “let’s find someone to take our photo” to, “come on everyone, gather around for a selfie!”  Easy peasy.  And if people don’t like your selfies, well, then they don’t like them.

And let me just say, getting 10 people into one selfie (which defies the name selfie) is a tribute to the talent of the selfie taker. Like this one for instance.  When my twin said, HEY LET’S GET A SELFIE at our monthly couples dinner, everyone comes.  Everyone wants to be part of the pictorial history.

And now it’s part of my blog history.

I totally get the annoying factor for some people, they see it as self promotion, narcissism — others see it in a “glass half empty” mentality, “look at all those smiling selfies, their life is going so much better than mine.”  Sometimes, it’s just annoying to see another selfie of the same person for the 10th time in the feed, or on Instagram… I get it.

Which brings me to the truth.  The truth is everyone in this photo is carrying a burden, some heavier than others, and some that we are carrying together, but for this moment we are smiling because this time we set aside to be together has a brilliance of its own despite the burdens of our hearts. We are capturing the moment with a smile and a selfie.

And smiles, they can make the heaviest hearts feel lighter with each smile they receive back.  For one who has experienced debilitating depression, I can say that if I didn’t smile, I don’t think I’d have dug myself out.  Smiling might seem like a facade, but in truth, a smile when it comes from a place of sadness or pain, is one of the truest smiles of all.

So, go ahead and snap the selfies, gather the friends and family and see how many you can get into the frame (hint, use the person with the longest arm to hold the iPhone), then smile.