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I was at the airport the other day. Arriving back from a delicious couple of solo nights away [heaven!]

Walking through the building, there was a big, long flight of stairs ahead of me and an escalator, just one, that was going down. [down! my cranky.pregnant.lady.brain complained to itself. why would you have just one escalator going down? hrrrmph!] But as I went to lift my bag, there was suddenly an older man beside me offering to carry it. How lovely!

And even lovelier: we got chatting. He was one of five children. He grew up in the country and only ever went on one [thrilling] family holiday – to the beach. He, himself, had four children ranging from seven to thirty-one and he was convinced girls are harder to work out than boys. Much more complicated [he said].

As we arrived at the exit I thanked him for helping me. It was very kind of you [I said]. Well, it was my pleasure, [he smiled] it was great to meet you.

I walked away feeling A Hundred Dollars! And thinking: sometimes the escalator really is going exactly the right way [even if it doesn’t seem to be].

Tags: connection, gratitude, happiness, holidays