Appreciation

Tonight I had to work at the library, which meant that the girls had to get toted along for the half-hour drive. They don't mind this, because they get to play in the Children's Department while they wait for Dan to pick them up on his way home from work. As we crossed the parking lot on our way into the building tonight we saw one of my colleagues, Nancy, heading towards her car. She stopped to chat with the girls for a few minutes. They talked about Amy's 3rd birthday next week, and she spoke with each girl. They laughed for a bit over some little jokes, and then we said good-bye.

As we climbed the steps into the library Amy said, "Well, that was lucky". I wasn't sure what she meant by that, so I asked her what she was talking about.

"We almost missed your friend, Mommy. She was almost to her car. I like talking to her because she makes me happy. Doesn't she make you happy? Aren't we lucky that we saw her today?"

I never thought about it much before, but we interact with so many people throughout our day. Some we see in person, others we speak with on the telephone, and sometimes we even make contacts online. Some people make us angry or frustrated, but so often our interactions are positive ones. I rarely stop to think about these communications in the way that Amy did. But tonight, I thought a lot about Amy's comment. She's right. We were lucky to have shared some laughs with Nancy today. I'm glad I had a three-year-old with me to point out just how lucky we were.