The other day, I was coming home traveling through a small airport. I usually couldn’t concentrate on reading or do anything serious, but I rather liked spending my time watching people instead.
People watching made my mind wander, my curiosity piqued, and my imagination soared … I wondered who they just left behind; who they were going to meet; were they happy to be en route to somewhere happy, important, fun or somewhere somber, cold or mundane? Was this a holiday, a business trip, a celebration or a funeral?
A little girl around 3 or 4 years old ran around the waiting area, not a care in the world. Dodging grown-ups’ legs and luggages, she seemed to be having fun all on her own. Her mom did her work like checking in, dragging her bags around her and eventually settling down on a chair. Naturally, her little girl was bored and seeking something to do. I watched them start a game, an imaginary game … I could only guess at what game they were playing as I couldn’t hear their conversations, but it looked like a “shopping” game.
The little girl seemed to pretend to be buying something and talking to an imaginary shop keeper. She talked to him, making faces, carrying on a conversation all on her own. She held out her hands as if to receive the goods. Her face changed with different expressions, full of animation, tilting her head this way and that. She ran back to her mom, said something to her, then ran back to the empty spot in the waiting area to make another “purchase”, checking out the goods.
I couldn’t help but smile watching her, having fun, not caring what other people thought, gesturing in the air as if those imaginary folks were really there. For a short time, I imagined along with her, wondering who else she might have been talking to, what she was buying, who all the other customers or merchants were in her private world.
As the airline agent called for us to board our plane, I was a little sad to feel that our own kids, almost adults now, were once this little girl’s age, full of wonderful imagination, creativity and interesting ideas beyond the harsh reality of life. I was happy to have shared that short moment in the airport, however, to have had a chance to enjoy the world through that little girl’s eyes, it made me smile in joy. It was a short, but AWESOME moment. Thank you, little girl.