Sitting on the train this morning, a mother was playing with her two young kids. It was a simple game – read the names on the signs of businesses as we passed by. But the kids were having a blast, and so was the mother. It was an awesome thing to watch.

So often in my life I’m focused inward, on what I’m thinking or doing or feeling. So focused that I miss what’s going on around me. But every once in a while I get a glimpse of something fantastic – that glint in someone’s eye as they’re laughing, that look on someone’s face as they engage with something or someone that makes them forget everything around them, leaves them with a feeling of unspoiled joy. It’s one of life’s great gifts, to get that twinkle in your eye. Indeed, it’s one of life’s great gifts merely being in the presence of that twinkle in someone else.

I need to pay attention more often.