Smiling Across the Aisle

     Al and I were on the train from Bakersfield to Martinez when I noticed a beautiful, young Indian woman sitting on the aisle across from us. Every time I looked up from my knitting, she would be looking over at me, smiling. I thought maybe she was interested in what I was doing, so I asked her if she knew how to knit. “Yes,” was her short reply.

     Her husband explained that they were visiting relatives in the US and had just arrived from India. He spoke English fluently; however, she was not as confident speaking it as he was. And their son wouldn’t learn English in school until the 5th grade. Their native tongue was Hindi.

   Several minutes passed by with exchanges of glances and smiles. “Boy, does she ever have a pretty smile!” I was thinking, when she surprised me by saying, “You have a beautiful smile!”

  “Well, I was just thinking the same thing about you,” I replied. Later she commented that I was always smiling. I told her that my heart was happy and that made me smile! PTL! (Praise the Lord!)

    That encounter was one of the highlights of our Amtrak trip for me. What a sweet family!

"A happy heart makes the face cheerful..." Proverbs 15:13a NIV