A Small, Kind Act

   I was sitting in church at before the service started. The past few days had been tough mentally and emotionally. We had an angry email confrontation with distant relative and another confrontation with another family member was looming. Two young men would be singing a hymn during the church service and C and I would be playing guitar and hammer dulcimer respectively with them. The short practice session we had just finished had gone well, but my hands were shaking. I was also having a carpal tunnel flare up in my left hand due to extended computer use during the week. I wasn't sure I could play. I would much rather have been at home with the curtains closed so I could shut out the world for awhile, but I had made a commitment.
  I watched as a young boy and his mother walked across the front of the chapel. As they passed by he reached out a hand and strummed the dulcimer strings. I didn't mind. I knew the boy's mother and knew that she would not allow him to harm my instrument. I hoped he liked the sound of the strings.
  They walked towards the back of the church. As they passed by, the boy peeled away from his mother and sat on C's lap. He stayed there for a few minutes and then climbed over to me. He settled himself in my lap, wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled against me.
  For a few minutes I didn't know what to do. No child had ever done this before.  I have always assumed that I was like my dad and that children were just afraid of me. This young boy had never approached me in the four years or so I had been attending church. In fact he always tended to stay close to his parents and was not known for approaching people.
  I put my arms around him and held him. Once in awhile I would gently rub his back between his shoulder blades. He seemed to like it. I had no idea why this was happening. I just held him and rocked a little in my seat.
  His grandmother came up to me and introduced herself. She tried to get the boy to come to her. He crawled over to her for a few minutes and then returned to me firmly wrapping his arms around me and resuming his former position. She said what he was doing was pretty remarkable as he doesn't approach people. We both wondered why he was doing this. It could have been what I was wearing. I was wearing a navy blue knit dress with small white dots. The dots are raised like Braille letters on a page. I told her I thought he liked the texture. She held out her hands to him to get him to come to her but he would not leave his spot on my lap. I felt bad. She was his grandmother from out of town who had come to visit and I was a near stranger. I apologized to her. She didn't seem to be upset though and she went off to see the boy's infant sister.
  He decided to straddle my lap and put his face in my shoulder. I was wearing my hair down and he would touch one of the curls on my neck. I was waiting for him to grab at my hat, but he never did. A couple of times he would but his head back and look at me with his huge,brown eyes. He would make a sound,since he doesn't talk much. I hummed softly back at him. I don't know why I did this, it just seemed to be the right thing to do.
  Shortly before the service started, his grandmother returned. I handed him over and said gently but firmly, "Go to your Grandmother." He seemed to understand and allowed her to pick him up and carry him to his parents.
   For some reason I felt much better. Maybe he sensed my inner distress and wanted to comfort me. Maybe he just wanted to spend some time with the lady that always wears a hat to church. Maybe he remembered the other times I played music at church or maybe he remembered me from the times I would talk to his mother. Maybe it just didn't matter.
   When the time came to play, I took off my hat, picked up my hammers and walked with confidence to my instrument. I played note perfect. Not a sound was heard in the chapel while we played. Normally there is a little background noise,a baby crying or a child fidgeting. It was as good as we could get it. When we has finished I walked back to my seat smiling. I put my hat back on and prepared to listen to the next speaker.
   That small, kind act had turned my day around.