There was a little one-year-old boy with flaxen blond hair on the bus today. His time was spent intensely examining the leather zipper pull on his mom's purse, only pausing to furtively look up into her eyes, and break into a huge grin... or steal glances over to the left where his dad sat, pretending to not notice until he tapped him on the shoulder.

Watching happy families makes me so incredibly happy. This is what life is about - finding happiness in the middle of everything and anything that is happening.

Unconsciously, I began wondering what my family would look like if I were married and had kids. If I had, like my original plans once outlined, fallen in love and married shortly after my mission... how many kids would I have? How old would they be?

And where would we be... and what would we be doing right now? My life would definitely be remarkably different... I look around the bus, and everyone else seems to be alone... riding without anyone. Even if I had a family, would I be sitting next to my wife, playing peek-a-boo with a giggling one-year-old, and sharing blissful glances above his head?

The thought makes me smile... and I turn back to watch them. He's still laughing. At one year old, he's found an inexhaustible supply of happiness in a zipper pull. Try to never grow up, kid. But if life makes you, then carry a zipper pull in your pocket.

Now I'm the one laughing.
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