THE MIRACLE IN HER SMILE….

She couldn’t stop staring at me, with occasional smiles and shy gestures, the little girl in the bus couldn’t just get her eyes off me. Being unable to resist the innocent and yet heavenly smile, I smiled right back. She must have taken this as a welcome. She suddenly plunged onto my laps shocking her custodian, myself as well. The little girl in my story suffers from down-syndrome or some form of mental incapability. The joy on her face nearly drove me to tears in a public bus and I quickly looked away. Her custodian quickly took her away from my lap, trying to find excuse but I quickly threw her back a reassuring smile. I couldn’t get the right words to tell her it was alright and when I tried to my stop at Ellesmere road had come.

Why do I tell this story? Well, it struck how many parents take fore granted the fact that they have “normal” children, who are not in any form of lack. I have no child of my own yet but the child in the bus drew me to yet another realization of the daily miracles that cross our paths daily. We go about belligerent and whining about the tiniest of issues, passing on our foul moods to everyone around us. We fail to apprehend the beauty around us even on a day when all seems to fall apart. The gift of gentle embrace of a child; the innocence in their smiles and their earnest yearn for care. I was on the verge of tears because in the brief moment I had with this little girl, I saw the face of an angel. Yet another miracle that God gives freely.

In the same bus, the headlines of the “metro” newspaper screams; “THE BIGGEST BURST IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY “. Irony indeed! I couldn’t help to think of the children whose innocence have been taken away and those being taken as I write this short blog. They are the future me and you and yet someone poisons their soul, defiles their being and robs them of their innocence and radiance. Their angelic image is turned into a dark soul. Words are not sufficient to term these acts as atrocities, yet they happen under our roofs, in our bedrooms, our cars and neighborhoods.

I may not change much this afternoon but I send word across to parents who have little angels, guardian to whom the care of such glorious beings are accorded; hold them and not to let go. Show them that a part of humanity still lives. The miracle in her smile played a string in my soul. When the little girl smiles to you next time please smile back.