The Nice Thing About Strangers
Creative Non-Fiction Short Stories. :) Travel, Oldsters, Love, and Compassion.
So So Beautiful
The girl sits upright in her stroller. Mom pushes and chats with her, but the little girl doesn’t lean back and relax. She’s watching the crowds coming and going in the subway station. Her curly hair falls around her face and she catches a view that makes her angle even-further forward. She and her mother are approaching on a blind man walking with a cane and a service dog. The girl studies the man’s face, pointed forward, his eyes hidden behind sunglasses, his head tilted to listen. The cane taps the grooves in the subway platform and the fluffy dog pants happily along.
The stroller girl slowly calls, “Mama?” Then daughter glances from her now-attentive mother back to her observation, and then waits until Mom has seen the man and dog as well. The mother leans, perhaps whisper to her daughter about service animals, blindness, or politeness. However, the tiny girl breaks in with a smile and the perfect exclamation: “Beautiful! So so beautiful.”
–Vienna, Austria.
Trogir, Croatia by Clayton Lovett
The Nice Thing About Strangers 
The perfect harmony between an seeing dog and person is always quite something 🙂
Agreed! In that busy station, I may not have seen them if I didn’t try to find out what the toddler found so remarkable. 🙂 Have a lovely week, Andy!
Paige
You too! ^.^/
Yeah beautiful indeed
Thank you, Joanne! 🙂
Paige
I know I keep saying “This is my favorite story”, but I’ve run out of ways to say it.
I just hope you don’t run out of stories. This one was absolutely wonderful my friend.
Thank you, Jeff! I’ve been feeling short on stories lately, but I keep trying to hunt for them. 🙂 Gotta get back in my good habits.
Paige
I can so relate to that. Perhaps it’s time to set aside St. Expedite and lean on St. De Sales and St. Aquinas? 😉
(meant to post my reply here)
I can so relate to that. Perhaps it’s time to set aside St. Expedite and lean on St. De Sales and St. Aquinas? 😉
Lol, I have a poem about St. Expedite that I wrote many years ago. My philosophy professor always talked about that phenomenon. 🙂 I expect St. Expedite must be a true story as well as a shipping error.
Have a lovely week–
Paige
Isn’t it wonderful the things children notice that adults would not? That’s why I find kids so remarkable. They want to learn, they see things differently, and it’s our job to cultivate it and help them keep those observational skills, because that’s what they are! Inborn skills. Lovely story.
Thank you, Kitty. I agree that we can learn a lot from what young eyes see. 🙂 It is sometimes remarkable to believe we could have ever seen the world in such a beautiful way, but it’s in there. 🙂
Paige
Gets me right in the heart. Kids understand these things, the beauty of a blind man and his dog! Reminds me of a similar happy scene: I once saw a young father out for a stroll with his two babies while white blossom petals fell all around them. I still smile at the memory.
Amber,
Oh, that sounds like a lovely scene as well. 🙂 I have a few memories like that, which I call up when I want some inspiration or a reason to grin.
Thank you so much for your note–
Paige
I was so in need of something today, but didn’t know what. This story was that something.
Meagan,
How lovely! I’m so glad to hear you found the “I know not what” in this story. 🙂 That made my day–
Paige
A apt description of the busy station as well as the mental&physical attributes of the incoming blind man and the service dog.Short,sweet and effective.Amazing read.My personal compliments