A Divine Appointment

I had a divine appointment the other day. I mean the appointment in Wess Stafford’s statement: “Every child you encounter is a divine appointment.” Little Maria, all of three years, blessed me with a visit. She is the daughter of a niece of mine. I noticed that she was getting as bored as I was with the adult talks on the dining table whose savoury snacks didn’t hold Maria’s attention. Her grandmother, my sister, mentioned that Maria had fallen in love with a little lamb in my brother’s house nearby. “Do you like kittens?” I asked Maria. Maria’s eyes lit up.

“Are you ready to climb up the stairs to the terrace?” I became alive too. Maria ran out of the room and pulled up her sandals which needed to be strapped at the back. She did all that while I was trying to identify my slippers among all the footwear that lay outside.

Maria ascended the staircase with the agility of a gymnast only to be disappointed to see an empty terrace. I called out to the kittens as I usually do. They didn’t respond, however. Kittens don’t like guests even if they are little girls. So I had to go and pick them up from their hiding place among the few scrap metal building materials I keep on the terrace. Maria was elated once again.

Maria’s elation erased my melancholy which was caused by the visit of a nephew in the morning. This young man lives in Canada. He is now a permanent resident there. He visited me just as a formality. Maybe, his parents gave him a list of relatives to be visited. There was never any expression on his face. No emotions. He looked like a robot who was responding like a computerised programme to my efforts to build up an amiable conversation.  

This young man who will soon become a Canadian citizen left me with a nausea that little Indian Maria lifted all too easily. Maria was my divine appointment that day.

My little cuties on the terrace where their mother chose to keep them

They have the circle of my love around them

 Children and kittens. There's a lot in common between them. Kittens remain closer to my heart because children grow up and become adults with nothing divine about them.