Looking Through a Window

Yesterday morning while dropping my kids off at school in the line of cars lined up at the curb, I had one of the little moments in time that takes you by surprise.  I saw a very simple exchange between two people that touched my heart in a way that I'm not even sure I can describe - maybe because it is so tied into that which makes us human, it was unexpected, or because it was simply sweet.  I pulled the van around the corner and was driving past a well-used blue pick-up truck.  I looked through the back windshield and saw a dad kissing his daughter goodbye to send her on her way to school.  This dad and his daughter live in my own neighborhood and I see them almost everyday, squeaking in to school in the nick of time or just barely late for the start of school at drop-off time.  I've never seen a mom so I really don't know if there is one involved in their lives or not.  This little girl has to be about a 4th grader, so she isn't very little anymore.  Other days, I've seen her either walking hand-in-hand with her dad to be dropped off or picked up from school, or the dad carrying her eventhough she is at an age that might seem too old for that.  And this is what I see about these strangers that touches me:  a dad that obviously loves his daughter and isn't afraid to show it (even in public); a daddy's girl (so much like my own daughters); and a parent that is making those little moments count.  Because in the end, when our kids are grown up, we will want to have made the little, special moments count and hope that we didn't make mountains out of mole hills.