Everyday Kidling Magic

At the bus stop this morning there was a little girl who was delighting in the fact that she could both see her reflection in the glass bus stop wall as well as see through it. She told her mom "I am in the trash!" with great delight and a touch of the enticingly forbidden. I was really impressed by her mom too, encouraging her to think but not pushing in a direction: parental love and support at its most unassuming.

They got on the bus with me, the same bus I take all the time. There the little girl shyly greeted a man in a suit and tie whom she didn't know. He later joined in on the discussion she and her mom were having about possibly getting a treat at Dunkin Donuts before school (preschool from her age). Then a hardworn middle aged woman joined in with just a few words.

The little girl waved to everyone (both involved in the conversation and not) when it was time for her and her mom to go, and she received many waves in return.

It would be fair to think that this all by itself was magic enough, and you would not be wrong. But then something even more magical happened: all those closed adults on their morning commute who had opened just a little for a sparkling little girl, they stayed open.

They discussed the best local bakeries and pastry shops. They compared notes on different aspects of their lives, and it gained momentum. Several more adults joined in the conversation, including the bus driver. And as we arrived at our destination I heard an exchange of names between some unlikely pairs. "Hi Daryl, it was very nice to meet you."

All these adults rediscovering themselves and sharing despite the superficial differences of background, appearance, and affluence and finding a way to break out of their insulative commute bubbles in order to do so: magic indeed.

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