A Nice Reminder...

Yesterday, I was at the train station in Guangzhou, China, getting ready to come home to Hong Kong (it's about a 2 hour, 20 minute train ride between the two cities).  I have been traveling an awful lot lately, and I'm getting pretty worn down.  In China, when the doors open to board the train, people disregard the line that has been forming for the past 45 minutes, and there is a mad stampede for the escalator that takes you down to the train platform.  (In fact, sometimes, when I'm traveling with Brian, I yell "stamp-ede!" just for fun...  ;))  Yesterday, it was no different.  I had lined up about 20 minutes before the doors opened, because I always have just a glimmer of hope that maybe THIS TIME, people actually will get the concept of a line... but they don't.  I was weary from two (very good and productive, but still tiring) days of meetings, and really not in the mood to be jostled and pushed from all sides.  Taking the stairs rather than the escalator usually is a ticket to beating the herd, so I took the stairs, only to get behind a mom and her young daughter, who was happily trying to hop down the stairs on one foot.  This didn't amuse me at the time, as I WAS IN A RUSH (um, to sit down for two hours?) and I wanted to get where I was going!  I was able to pass by the mom and girl, only to get blocked by slow moving traffic at the bottom of the stairs.  I then was walking by them, and, was embarrassed to find that my suitcase had moved sideways and was actually running into the girl.  I immediately realized that I was being crazy, and said "I'm so sorry."  That was the moment.  The little girl looked up at me, made eye contact (not many little kids look a stranger right in the eye), gave me a huge grin and said, "It's okay!".  I teared up and realized that I was once that little girl... happy-go-lucky, not in a rush to get anywhere, and hopping on one foot if that was what I wanted to do.  I've been going at a pace that's not healthy, and not taking the time to enjoy this journey that we're fortunate enough to be on.  Sometimes, life's little reminders don't come from the big boss or even your closest friends... sometimes, it's a happy little 6-year-old, who will hop on one foot and not care about how fast she's getting to her destination - her pleasure comes from the journey, which is something I had forgotten over the past few months. 

Here's to the journey, my friends... hop along!  :)