A few days ago, LadyD brought up a story that I had read when it first came out, nearly two years ago. My favorite pizza delivery person, Uncle Crappy, later linked to the original Washington Post article. If you've never read the full story of when one of the world's greatest musicians, Joshua Bell, went incognito and played a $3.5 million violin during rush hour in the middle of a busy metro station, you should. It's an amazing story that will leave you thinking and make you ask yourself, "Would I have stopped to listen?"

I reread the whole thing, with the new perspective of a parent of a toddler, rather than the parent of a newborn, and was struck by a particular line:

"Every single time a child walked past, he or she tried to stop and watch. And every single time, a parent scooted the kid away."

I don't want to be that parent.

Sure, being a grown-up means having grown-up responsibilities. Being on time is important, and life is full of things that need to be done. Kids, on the other hand, are all about dawdling and are magical at finding ways of procrastinating on the way to anywhere. I mean, it can take Alexis twenty minutes just to walk down the stairs because she will stop to look in the mirror, check out all the photos, pick at a spot on the carpet, adjust her headband, try to reach the ceiling, call the dogs, and verify that she still has two feet at least 30 times. Mad Delay Skillz, she has them.

But stopping to listen to music? To catch a snowflake on her tongue? To watch the ducks eat? To smell the flowers? She does all that, too.

And she's right to do it.

I wanna be right.

Teach me, Alexis. I don't want to forget to stop and enjoy life right along with you.