Of moments, magic and joy

It was a blustery night, the winds sweeping the temperature downwards.
Trees were hit hard, weakened by strangulating concrete at their trunks.

I stopped at a red light and was approached by a young boy, maybe 11 years old.
He wanted me to buy from the strings of scented flowers which he dangled in one hand.
I would have, but the night was done and my hair, for once, was short and left open.
Had it been up I would have wrapped the flowers around it and let their scent infuse my hair.
And so I declined.

Then Raju smiled a smile that was open and so happy. Again he whispered: Take this bud and smell it, please! He transformed the moment. He was not selling. He was not thinking of money. He was just being.

I looked at him.

He was feeling the single flower between two fingers so gently, holding it out to me.
I thought I had not heard him clearly, what he was saying was so unexpected. He repeated himself and said :Take this, smell it.

And so I did.

It was heady as I knew it would be, but not every flower smells as good.
I looked at him.

His hair was bleached by the sun and his smile was radiant and we smiled at each other while I fished for something to give him in return.

Where are you from, I asked, surprised that my heart could do a double take in that instant. I could have adopted him right then, raised him as my own.

He twinkled and the grin became even freer, almost naughty: All I know is that I sell flowers, he said chuckling, as we both noticed the light turn green.

I drove off, feeling elated. Thinking back to the rush of feeling the boy had evoked, I realised how foolishly it had transgressed our boundaries. Suddenly, I could sense that compared with his world, mine was made of walls that could imprison, and a solitariness that could eat into the soul of someone so young. Who was I to project my feelings into a future that might take Raju away from the soil that made him capable of being happy.

We had shared that happiness for a few minutes and that was all.

Raju was one of many reminders that life is about such momenta. It is about unencumbered feelings of joy that leap into one's cells.

This is the feeling that translates into a life force within us. This is the healing potion no one can recreate and bottle. That is what we all need to experience and hold on to.