Muscles

When you're smiling
When you’re smiling
The whole world smiles with you …

For some reason one of my colleagues thought that assistance was required with someone’s facial expressions today...

Apparently the muscles used to smile are:

Zygomaticus major and minor – These muscles pull up the corners of your mouth. ...
Orbicularis oculi – Causes the eye crinkle. ...
Levator labii superioris – Pulls up the corner of lip and nose. ...
Levator anguli oris – Helps to raise the angle of mouth

Some of these sound like spells out of Harry Potter to me, particularly “Orbicularis Oculi” which I reckon could cause someone to involuntarily shut their eyes. Anyway, It was a very busy day and some people were rushed off their feet and feeling the pressure (me too, up to a point; but I am older and less bothered about stress than I used to be, particularly as I am now a master of “Differam et totam dilatione tardar” which is not something you learn at Hogwarts but is a martial art you acquire from a lifetime in management). Anyway it’s not a bad thing; as Emily Dickinson said, “People need hard times and oppression to develop psychic muscles” (incidentally, Frank Herbert used the quote unattributably in Dune, saying there should be a "science of discontent" ... interesting concept).

The other thing you need good muscles for is walking through the countryside at a leisurely pace; or rambling which is what I am doing now … time to stop methinks …