Laughter on a Miserable Commuter Train

It's 8am on Thursday 1st September, summer is officially over and autumn is here (actually by 10am the sun is shining gloriously and I'm hoping for an Indian summer!). I'm surrounded by grumpy commuters. Happy on the inside I try my best to blend in.

At the next station a Mum gets on with her 3 year old daughter and they proceed to sit behind me. This little girl is just so happy with her life. She's chatting away to her Mum and laughing, pointing things out and being very excited about the whole train journey. They talk about who they might meet for lunch and look at pictures on the Mum's phone. Then the little girl notices a picture of a lady wearing a red dress and proceeds to tell her Mummy how great her Mummy would look in that dress and maybe she could get one too and then they'd both look lovely. Her Mum, a woman who clearly dedicates time and attention to her daughter, suggests that perhaps they could go out dancing together, which receives squeals of delight.

This little girl’s bright, cheerful and excited voice soon had EVERYONE around her smiling. So simple. Let's be clear here, this Mum has got on the train with her push bike laden with two child seats (one on the back and one on the cross bar). She is clearly NOT a yummy mummy who lunches. She's simply a great mother and I am so pleased that she got on the same train as me.

Her daughter brought light and laughter onto that train, a sense of reality and a reminder to everyone that the simple things in life bring us the most pleasure.