"Smile When You Are Ready" - or a compassionate fortune cookie

Recently, i have been told quite often to smile or, if i haven't been told, i feel like i should be smiling. but there are some days that one cannot smile. on Wednesday, it felt like i had been smiling most of the day. it was a little pained and slightly lopsided, but it was a smile. Then, my mother asked me how i was doing and i could not hold that smile on any longer. it cracked, it crumbled, and then blew away as if it had never been. Needless to say i broke down in the middle of an all you can eat Chinese buffet with my mother across the table crying too. Not a pretty sight. We gathered ourselves together, talked about something else, finished our meal then walked to the front to pay the bill. The waitress ran up behind me and passed me the fortune cookies she had forgotten to place on the table with the bill. i took them and followed my mother out to the car. Once we reached there, i tried to explain to her why it felt like i needed to smile when i could not. She said that i needed to smile to get over my hurt and that this was an opportunity for adventure or something along those lines. i don't remember. i cracked open the first cookie and read it out loud, "to make sure you always hit the target, fire, and call whatever you hit the target" we talked about what that meant and laughed a little. Then i cracked open the second- "smile when you are ready" i could not read it out loud through my tears. That was what i had needed, wanted, to hear all day. People had told me that it would get better, smile and see the bright side of things. Here was fate telling me that it was okay to cry, to not smile as if nothing was wrong. I thank heaven for a waitress who remembered at the last moment, a mother who knows how much Chinese food helps on a bad day, and a God who knows what i need and finds a way show His love when i need it most. "Smile when you are ready" a tender mercy that came in the form of a fortune cookie.