Smiling back…
One of those signature moments that makes every day such a beautiful day. Early morning during my 5 mile run on Alpharetta sidewalks, climbing up a small hill, I saw a very young kid – the boy could not have been more than four years old – holding his mom’s hand and walking along. Most likely to the Kids and Kids half a mile down the road.
As I approached them, I was trying to be mindful not to startle them from behind. The kid (who by the way, had his head clean shaven like me) heard me, looked back and his eyes were fixated on my bright neon orange shoes 🙂 And just as I passed him, he looked up to me and gave me one of those beatific smile only blissful kids unmindful of their parents’ “Stranger Danger” advise can give. And then wrested his hand out of his mom’s clutch and waved at me.
That was a very powerful moment.
By this time, I was just passing him. I raised my hand and waved back. He could not see me – but I smiled back to him too.
For the rest of the run, I mentally kicked myself for not turning back and showing the kid that I was smiling too. I guess I did not want to be weird to the lady. Or maybe I was too much into the running and missed the enormity of the moment. Regardless, the kid deserved better from an adult.
And that was my lesson for the day – in runs, as in life, we start from different points and end at different points. The line between those points – or the speed at which we traverse the line – does not define us. What defines us are the intersection points with others’ lines. For, it is in those intersection points that life offers us the opportunities to acknowledge each other’s journey, celebrate each other’s presence and make a difference to each other’s lines.
And that journey is what it is all about.
That is why we live. That is why we run.
