jackson

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rooted in the pain, but blooming in to life

Yesterday as I was leaving the subway and was just about to go down the escalator, a shopping bag (that had new SOCKSKS and a gift for my best friend) fell out of my backpack, due to my hyper clumsiness. Of course I didn't notice.

As went down the escalator I heard a person shouting "sir! sir! you dropped something!". I turned around and saw him holding my shopping bag, and he had an expression on his face said he was determined to return it. I hilariously and embarrassingly ran up the MOVING escalator (kinda like that elf in the final scene of the hobbit) to this beautiful kind stranger.

He had a smile that almost pushed his cheeks off his face as he gave it to me. I couldn't stop saying "thank you so very much!" and "I knew it would fall out, haha!". He said is 'no problems' and I pivoted, then walked back to the escalator.

As I descended down the perpetually moving staircase, I quickly peered at this compassionate person I briefly encountered. To my surprise, he was looking back at me still. It was if he wouldn't stop smiling, as if he was so proud of himself for doing a simple good deed, for making my day, happy, and realizing there is still some bits of good in the world. It warmed my heart more than I could imagine an 8:30 pm scene at Yorkdale Subway Station could.

I started to think. We were just two strangers, two inhabitants of the earth. We didn't know anything about each other, about how our day went, about our opinions and political views, how much money we had left to feed ourselves, if we had planned on killing ourselves sometime soon. But he noticed me, he saw an opportunity to omit some positivity back in to the universe, and was just simply kind. As I was moving faster and faster down the escalator, I acted quickly. I just gave a friendly wave, and he waved back, as if his smile couldn't grow any bigger. All of the sudden, like I was taking part in a sad part of a movie, he disappeared out of sight. We aren't ever going so see each other again, but we are for sure going to remember each other for a long time.