Teletubbies need groceries, too

Po likes a good bargain
London, ON
December 2009
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Po, the smallest of the Teletubbies, has been hanging off of my camera bag ever since the kids were really little. I freed her from her Happy Meal prison at an age when our eldest son was too young to protest, and she's been bringing smiles to complete strangers wherever I go ever since. She's been in airports, in airports in glass, in television studios near and far, beside a pool, on the beach, and even over the North Pole.

This particular day at the local Sobeys may have seemed ordinary, but as 2013 draws to a close I'm learning all too well that there's really no such thing as an ordinary day anymore.

The day pictured above came soon after we had lost my dad, and perhaps to combat the gloom that seemed to have descended over our family I found myself trying to create little moments with a camera. In this case, I thought bargain-hunting Po would bring a smile to my and my wife's face (that's her to the left. Say hi.)

If memory serves, it didn't do much good that day. But looking back at that moment, I can understand why I had to at least try. And why little silly moments like this continue to matter on anything-but-ordinary days within an anything-but-ordinary life.

Your turn: How do you find smiles where there seem to be none?