I was in line at the post office this morning behind a young mom and her wee daughter—an adorable little munchkin with huge brown eyes who must have been about 18 months old. Her fuzzy brown mop of hair stuck out crazily on all sides as though she’d stuck her finger in the power outlet in the not-so-distant past, and her tiny red mouth was perpetually formed into a wonder-filled O.

She was remarkably active, toddling all over the place like a tiny little drunk person, much to the amusement of the elderly men and women who were patiently waiting in line to mail their packages. While her mother was distracted talking to the clerk behind the counter, the fearless little explorer took it into her head to see the great outdoors. As her pink diapered bottom tottered out through the doors into the street, however, her adventure was abruptly terminated by a fatherly-looking fireman who ducked out right behind her and swooped her up into his arms. There was some general laughter as he returned to the post office with the wee prodigal, she looking up at him curiously, fearlessly, while he returned her gaze with kindly amusement.
Her mother thanked him profusely, and apologized, but I think he was rather enjoying the little midget, because he offered to hold her until her mother finished at the counter.

Thirty seconds later, an elderly woman came in with two identical twin boys in tow. The boys were probably a few months past their second birthdays—they were walking well, and starting to experiment with basic English phrases in cute lispy toddler voices.
As they came in, both sets of little boy eyes latched onto the fireman right inside the door…and then both sets of little eyes noticed the wee girl in his arms. She looked at them curiously, as though she had never seen little boys before. The boys, however, had clearly seen little girls before. Huge smiles instantly appeared on their faces.

“Ooo!” one of them cooed, lisping in his amazement and excitement, “It’th cuuuute! Look at du baby!”

“Yeah!” his brother nodded enthusiastically. The two little dudes stood there admiringly, stock still, gazing up at this small female wonder.

I almost lost it at that point—it was SO funny! These two little men were hardly more than babies themselves, but clearly they felt that they had long passed the point that this chick was at.

I suppose it’s a lesson that broadly applies to all of life—we tend to look back at those who stand where we stood—emotionally, spiritually, or psychologically—just a few short months ago…and we make comparisons, and think to ourselves how much we’ve grown, or how much different we are from these others…when in fact, there is probably very little that separates us…and if we find that we are allowing ourselves to focus on the differences, we’re probably missing the real point of our life journey anyway. So many incredible lessons to be learned from the commonplace!

Incidentally, if it weren’t highly illegal and just generally unadvisable, I think I’d go kidnap me a cute little pair of identical twin boys tonight…but I shall exercise admirable amounts of self-control instead, and refrain.