General News
26 September, 2025
Smiles with Sally: World Smile Day
This week Sally reminds us that October 3 is World Smile Day and she is hot on the trail to get everyone smiling every day. Her challenge is to get everyone to comment on what made them smile on World Smile Day; so please share on this page what made you smile or what effect it had when you received a smile. To kick off the week with a smile, Sally shares a friend's story here and the value of being a smiling town or city.
I returned to Sydney and spoke with my wife about moving.
My wife, young son, and I had just spent some time, around two hours, north of Sydney at Port Stephens, and loved how everyone smiled and acknowledged each other. It felt like a community that saw each other.
When we returned to Sydney, I noticed how few, if any, smiled at each other. That was a real eye-opener to me, and not an environment I wish to bring up my son in.
I was talking with a friend of mine, who told me this story. He grew up in a small town in New Zealand and was raised by his grandparents.
In this town, people smiled and acknowledged each other, and my friend knew the value of this.
Having recently had a son of his own, this value was brought back to the surface.
For his son to experience this, he understood he and his wife needed to choose to possibly move from the big city of Sydney to a smaller, smilier town.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? We spend so much time and money trying to keep people in our towns and regions.
Cities and towns pour energy into new buildings, flashy playgrounds, trendy restaurants, and marketing campaigns.
All of that has its place, of course, but my friend’s story makes me wonder if we sometimes miss the simplest ingredient of all; people who see each other.
Think about it. Sydney offers everything, including world-class restaurants, galleries, pools, gardens, and that famous Harbour Bridge, yet the thing that drew my friend’s heart wasn’t infrastructure or attractions.
It was the feeling of being acknowledged and a place where a smile travels from person to person without effort.
Smiling is free; it doesn’t require planning permits, million-dollar budgets, or grand designs, and yet its impact can be enormous.
A smile tells someone they matter, they’re seen, and they belong.
That simple recognition can lift a mood, ease loneliness, and create the sense of safety that every community craves.
As I think I’ve mentioned before, smiles are also contagious, so the more we smile, the more others do too!
I often wonder how much difference it would make if we invested as much in people as we do in buildings.
Could rates of family violence drop if more neighbours looked each other in the eye and offered a genuine greeting.
Would substance use or mental health struggles ease, even slightly, if people felt noticed every day.
We can’t solve every problem with a smile, but we know that feeling invisible feeds despair, and being seen helps.
My friend and his family are still deciding whether to move, but they’ve already decided what matters most and that is raising their son in a place where smiles are part of the landscape.
That choice reminds me that the most powerful community investment isn’t always concrete or steel, but simply being seen and feeling we are seen and welcome.
This week why not reflect on the place you’ve felt happiest?
Was it where you had all the attractions in the world, or was it where you simply felt seen, worthy and that you belong? Would you be willing to smile and be involved in the movement towards belonging?