Lollipop!

I had a wonderful experience today.

For sometime now I have been struggling with a bit of sadness. It has been a little bit of everything but mostly my sadness is in the fact that I seemed to have lost the joy I felt in life and this was disturbing me.

So I have been praying for some help to open my heart to the joys of all that is around me. Today I got a full-blown dose of JOY exaggerated!

I had taken the C-Train (Calgary’s transit) down to 7th Street to head on down to the Mountain Equipment Co-op (see www.mec.ca ). I bought a pair of zip pants (you know the kind that zip at the knee and turn into shorts?) for Africa at a travel store on Saturday and was not really impressed with the price ($95) and being horizontally challenged, they were too long anyway and could not be altered because they had a zipper on the side of the pants as well. So I checked out the MEC and saw some pants in their online catalogue and thought I would go down and check them out. I did find a pair and paid $29, they fit better than the more expensive ones and they were on sale to boot. Just as good a quality so guess I’ll be taking the other pair back.

Anyway, on the way back to the train, I was walking behind a mother and her son. He was just a little guy and had this beautiful mousey, brown, curly hair just like Nick did when he was little and it kind of took my breath away. So I walked up beside them and said to the mother that I thought her son’s hair was beautiful and that it reminded me of my own son so many years ago. All of a sudden this little guy grabbed my hand, then he grabbed his mother’s and with a big smile jumped and tumbled right around. He did this a couple of times. I was totally taken by surprise and so was his mother for she said to me, “He has never done that before, with a stranger!” I looked down at him and there was this incredible smile.

Then I noticed there was something different with his ears, they were tiny and elf-like, and I noticed that his speech was muted some. But I have never seen such a radiant smile from a child in all my life. I thought for sure he was a cherub!

Since this was my lunch hour I was in a hurry and apologized to them for not being able to talk to them longer, but told her I thought her son was a precious thing and raced ahead to the train. Well it turned out they were catching the same train and without it being deliberate, they ended up sitting beside me.

Well, this little guy just chatted my ear off. He was bright and full of this loving energy.
“You’re a very bright boy!” I said. “Yes, I know,” he replied. I asked his mother how old he was and she said he was three. I was impressed for although his speech was not crisp, the vocabulary was at the level of a 5 year old.

She went on to tell me that he was her miracle baby. She said when he was born the doctors had little hope that he would hear or be able to speak. I looked at him and he smiled another beautiful smile. I thought my heart would melt. His mother beamed.

Jericho (that was his name) went on to tell me that he and his mother were off to find a lollypop for him since his doctor’s appointment turned out to be a positive one. I tried to convince him that perhaps an ice cream would be better (since his mother had indicated that she had no idea where to find a big lollypop in the downtown core). He was adamant about this lollypop and argued against the ice cream.

4th street and it was my stop to get off. As it was for Jericho and his mother also. As I left the train he gave be a big kiss. I think I floated off the train.

I call moments like this “perspective checks”. They put perspective to my life. They shift me from my sadness or self pity and straighten me out.

A mother who chose not to give up on her child, a child who chooses to be all that he can be… meeting them brought clarity to the beauty of life and all its joy and magnificence.

I’m not sure if I can totally articulate the feeling I felt in having experienced both mother and son today. The feeling is really indescribable. But if I had to I would say…

It was joy personified.