Being Ready

There was a small cluster of people standing around the family washroom, all waiting quietly in line.

There were Joe and I, along with Ruby and Sadie, there was also a staff of some kind with two very shy girls.

We’d all just seen ‘The Good Dinosaur’ – a somewhat disturbing animated film.

The girl, with her staff, a child care worker of some sort I imagine, looked a bit shocked when I asked her if she liked the movie.

As she spoke, it became clear that her facility in English wasn’t great but that she really wanted to answer my question.

“I got scared,” she said.

When she spoke, the child care worker, stopped, for a second, from whatever he was doing on his phone, and looked down at her and then up and me and smiled.

Then he went back to his phone, checking out his Facebook page.

“I got scared too,” I said, not being patronizing, some of what the movie about is scary, “Which part scared you?”

She very quietly and working to express herself in English, told me that she was scared when the dad dinosaur (spoiler alert) was swept away and killed.

Her eyes filled with tears, “I didn’t know what happened to him. I kept wanting him to be found, to come back.”

“Me, too,” I said.

Before I could say more the worker looked over at me and said, “Wow, she’s talking to you, it’s very hard to get her to talk.”

I don’t like speaking about someone when they are right there. But I simply nodded. His comment seemed to silence her and she looked away from me breaking off the conversation.

“I wonder why she’s talking to you,” he said.

“Maybe,” I said, “because I’m not on my phone.”

I don’t know the stories of the two girls he was supporting. I don’t know where they came from or what they experienced.

But I know that at least one of them has a lot to say.

If we want to hear, we have to appear ready to listen, we have to take opportunities to open doors, we have to disconnect from electronics so that we can connect with those who we support.

We communicate what we value all the time.

That’s so important, let me say it again.

We communicate what we value all the time.

And we communicate it to everyone.