RIPPLES FROM ANOTHER TIME

 

REFLECTION FROM TEN YEARS AGO---You know how you meet someone and instantly that person becomes a part of your life-memories, even though you never see them again, nor they ever think of you as well.   Just a small encounter at a restaurant, a child of such grace and charm that her tiny being captured my heart in that moment.   Often in these ten intervening years, I've wondered if she's doing well in school, or is she happy and dancing, or perhaps she's had a wonderful something in her life that would BRIGHT me to know.   However, wherever, I hope she is still that beautiful young lady whose small touch on my day has resounded in such a strange, welcome way, and I wish her WELL.  

From September, 2015:  Leah and I had been to Sunday lunch at a salad restaurant, and she had lingered with a takeout-container to collect some for her lunches of the week.   I stood in the lobby, and met a small girl whose sweet smile and fabulous, luxuriant hair simply captivated my interest.  The waiting line was sparser, but still going through, and I looked down and across the divider to see the most beautiful child---a little girl of about three, with the most astonishingly-beautiful hair---just a shining waterfall up in a tight band---not a ponytail, somehow, but across the width of her head and cascading down way past her waist.  She reached up, several times, lifting it by the sides and letting it fall sumptuously through her little hands as if she luxuriated in that special gift she carried.   Almost exactly like this, except not in "made" curls---more a cascading ripple of small gleaming waves, and the young lady was much tinier.

She turned and we smiled at each other.    I said, “You look very pretty today.”    She ducked her head, looked up, smiled again.     Catching a glimpse of the two Disney characters on her tiny shirt, I said, “Oh, do you like Elsa and Anna, too?   We do.”

She held her shirt-front out from her body for a look, and grinned.   “You know, we like them so much we had a FROZEN birthday party for my granddaughter,” I said.    Her Daddy had been smiling at the interchange, as she and I talked of the movie and the two sisters, and I went on to tell her about the party decorations and how much fun we had had.

He said,   “Her birthday’s tomorrow, and mine was yesterday”---then we got into the Happys and the “Mine was a few days ago, and Caro’s is Friday,”  with good wishes and general congratulations all around, like a bunch of happy Shriners at convention.       Isn’t it a marvel what just a smile among strangers will enkindle?

She still comes to my thoughts in happy dreams, this unknown little one, and so, wherever you are, Baby Girl, I hope you have had a wonderful decade, and wish you a future as bright as your smile.