I was working at my part-time retail job earlier this week and after working 8:30-5:30 at my full time job I was a little tired. I was zoned to be at the register and there were a few of out the ordinary things going on, there was a lady trying to get a hold of her daughter to see if she wanted to buy her a shirt, a restless old man sitting in a chair by the door waiting for her and getting more and more restless by the minute, and two men were clearing a path on the sales floor to carry a couch that they bought out of the store. There are usually a lot of things going on, but it's usually just people shopping, nothing out of the ordinary kind of interesting.
A lady came up to the register and placed her purchases on the counter, as I began to gather them I heard a small voice. "Um...He didn't make it!" the little voice said. I was caught off guard as I panned around looking for the source of the voice. I saw a little hand pop up from behind the counter followed by a little face straining to make herself as tall as she possibly could. She pushed her hand as close to me as she could get it and repeated herself "He didn't make it." I peered over her fingers and saw a bright green dead grass hopper. He indeed didn't make it.
For whatever reason my innate hatred of bugs and creepy crawlies went away as I reached out my hand and asked "Would you like me to bury him for you?" She carefully placed the dead bug in my hand and she said "Yes, pleeease!" with a smile. Her mother apologetically told me that she just likes bugs for some reason. I took the bug and reverently placed it in the trash can and I heard a "Thank you!" coming from the other side of the counter. I finished her mothers transaction and began wrapping all of her items when I noticed a curious set of blue eyes peeking out from the side of the counter. When she saw that I had noticed her she instinctively shrunk back. I drew her back out as I pulled out some tissue paper and asked her if she wanted to help me bury him. She literally popped up and rushed to my side and grabbed the tissue paper from my hand and began looking for the bug.
I pointed to the bug in the trash can and she spread out the tissue paper a placed it over the poor little bug. She bounced back up on her feet, smiled at me a said, "We did a good job. High-five." High-fives were had. I asked her if she could take her mommy's bag to her, she took the bag from me and then took a few stops walking away and then stopped. She skipped back to me and snuggled up to my side to give me an armless hug, because she was carrying the bag I gave her, and then kissed my stomach.
It was basically one of the cutest things that has happened to me in a while.
I always want to be someone who goes with people. I've never been one to enjoy the company of people who shut down ideas, but please don't assume I'm perfect either. I just know that the older I get the more value I see in just being a part of life thats going on around you. Life is way too short to be a "too cool." There are so many things to get distracted by these days and living life in a distracted state is definitely not something I want to do. I want to listen to peoples stories and help three year olds bury dead bugs. I guess I just want to do my best to be present even if it means I have to touch a dead grasshopper.