Pink Umbrellas
The sky was grey and heavy. Eventually, the rain came.
The High Street was full of the afternoon rush. Determined mothers, fractious four-year-olds, flocks of after-school adolescents, flirting, pushing, chewing gum.
As the rain fell, we all rushed and jostled to get passed. To get to Tesco, to get to the bank, to get home. There was a sense of the grind, and a sense of impatience, and I thought how much I dislike these grey, wet, busy afternoons.
And then, just up ahead, I saw someone with a very different view of it.
A little girl dived away from the crowds, and stood for a moment at the edge of the pavement. Very deliberately, she pointed an umbrella out in front, and opened it up.
The umbrella was pink as a princess, and covered with glitter and swirls. To her, it was the most glorious thing and she stood still happily gazing up at it. Her mum called back to her a few paces ahead, and she skipped off singing to herself under her pink umbrella.
I had to smile as I passed by. I am not a mum yet, but I am sure parents must have this all the time; the joy of seeing the world through their children’s eyes.
Oblivious to the crowds and the rain and the frantic afternoon. When happiness is a pink umbrella with glitter and swirls.
Well….I just bought a pink umbrella today – yay!! Always nice to add a bit of pink out into the grey world.
He, he, he, love that, Sal :)