This is from last Tuesday. I wrote it while waiting in line at the stores while I was running errands.


Driving home tonight, my windows are rolled down. Technically the moon roof is rolled back. And really, aren’t all windows electric now, so really there’s no rolling. Regardless, the windows were open. The air blowing in the windows breezes across my skin. My skin that is so happy to be in short sleeves in mid March. Kenny Chesney is ripping chords on the live version of “She Think’s My Tractor’s Sexy” (which I do).  My sunglasses are on. I smile while I belt out the chorus with Kenny. Tonight is a night to be celebrated. Tonight the sun is still out and I can have the windows down leaving my Massachussets based office. I’ve got a short drive to run an errand and a sexy tractor driver to keep me company. I turn the volume up a bit more as a little stream of sun peaks into my rearview mirror. Life is good.


Driving through town I see dozens of people out and about running, roller blading (who knew people still roller bladed?!), walking, and playing. Halfway to my destinaion I’m driving up a hill. I see a mother walking along the sidewalk, a toddler‘s hand tightly in her own. The toddler is very small and looks as though she’s still working out the walking thing. A single ponytail sticks up from the top of her head. I wonder why they are walking along the sidewalk and not in a park or a yard somewhere. They have no stroller or diaper bag and I think to myself, maybe it’s just so nice they wanted to leave the back yard for a little walk around the neighborhood. We crest the hill together and then I pass them. Walking towards them, presumably from the train that has just left the commuter station up ahead, is a man in his early 30s dressed in a smart suit and sunglasses, a messenger bag across his shoulder, iPhone in hand. At first I think nothing of it as there are people in business attire walking along the opposite sidewalk. And then I discover that mother and daughter were journeying up the sidewalk. This man in the serious suit suddenly breaks out into a mile wide smile and does a goofy two handed wave that a father only does for his little girl. And for a moment my heart sighs. It sighs over the sweetness of a mother bringing her little girl toddling up the street to meet her daddy. It sighs over a man who is so clearly over the moon to see his family walking to meet him. And mostly my heart sighs with yearing, hoping one day to be a part of such a simple joy as a commute home to a family.