They say it's a sad day when one no longer finds surprise
or pleasure in the little things in life. A friend who I'm no longer in
touch with told me that. Today I found such a thing. It's probably
incorrect to say I found it. I finally noticed it today.
I had forgotten what it was like to be a little girl at the
mosque, at a time when I hadn't yet learned to pray. My emotions ranged
from curiosity to impatience to a fake sense of self-importance. The
last of these would surface when I pretended to know how to pray. But in
reality, I would only be following the adults and copying their actions
as they prayed. Today, while I was sitting in the mosque, not praying, I
watched the little kids around me. And I noticed all of my emotions
replicated in them. Here, one was looking at the adults who were praying
nearby, and innocently trying to replicate their actions. There, a
couple were pretending to know exactly what they were doing, even lip
syncing the words of the prayers, and all but puffing their chests out
with pride as they did so. In another area, some kids, who were sitting
with their mothers while they prayed, looked at the maters as they
continued their prayers, their impatience writ clearly on their faces as
if to say, "Are you done yet?
