Precious Moments

They say that a picture speaks a thousand words.  A special moment can crystalize in your brain like a picture snapped on your iPhone. It will remain with you and perfume your life.  A bouquet of such moments can relieve the tedium of your everyday routine.  Here is one such moment:

Serendipity at Starbuck’s    

Our morning’s plans had run amok.  My daughter, MJ and I took refuge in Starbuck’s.  It was a week or two after Christmas and the post-holiday doldrums had set in.  We ordered coffee and then looked around for somewhere to sit.  The comfy armchairs were taken by newspaper aficionados. Intense couples were hunched over two-some tables solving life’s problems. Busy worker-bees were tapping away on their computers.  The only spot available was a long rectangular table that could comfortably sit 8 or 10.  We sat down on hard chairs at one end.  Shards of winter light pinged off the shiny surface as we faced each other across the table.  We were oddly disgruntled.

             MJ frowned, looking over my shoulder.  I turned and followed her gaze.  A woman with curly, dark hair was at a table by the window. She was studying a thick book with graphs.  She looked up under our scrutiny. There was a pause.  Then her eyes lit up.  “MJ?”

            My daughter responded, “Tally?”

            The woman got up and came over to our table.  Smiling, MJ stood up and reached out, cupping the woman’s face with her hands.  “I would recognize your sweet, little face anywhere,” she said.

             In that tender action thirty years fell away.  Back then, MJ had been an ultra-conscientious fourteen year old baby sitter and Tally, her ten year old charge.  Now they were two women in the fullness of life with children and jobs.  Through their interaction the day took on a new identity.  Such simple moments are pearls in the tenuous strand of life. 

Maybe you have one such moment to share?