Hello, everyone, and welcome to Speaking with Joy, a podcast to fill your soul, challenge your mind, and make you brave.

I'm your host, Joy Clarkson, and an evangelist for all things good, true, and beautiful.

So make yourself a cup of tea, find somewhere comfortable, and let's dive in to this week's episode.

As the taxi stopped and the coffee cup lady began to cross with the rest,

I saw the man raise a fist to one of his eyes in the way I'd seen

some children do in the store when they got upset. Then the coffee cup lady reached the RPO building

side, and she and the man were holding each other so tightly that they were like one large person,

and the son, noticing, was pouring his nourishment on them. I still couldn't see the

coffee cup lady's face, but the man had his eyes tightly shut. I wasn't sure if he was very

happy or very upset. Those people seemed so pleased to see each other, said the manager,

and I realized she'd been watching them as closely as I had.'

"'Yes, they seemed so happy,' I said,

"'but it's strange. They also seem upset.'

"'Oh, Clara,' the manager said quietly,

"'you never miss a thing.

"'Perhaps they hadn't met for a long time, a long, long time.

"'Perhaps when they last held each other like that,

they were still young. Do you mean, manager, that they lost each other? She was quiet for a moment.

Yes, she said eventually, that must be it. They lost each other, and perhaps just now, by chance,

they found each other again.

She turned from the window and came past us, and as she did so, she touched my shoulder.

Sometimes, she said, at special moments like that, people feel pain alongside their happiness.

...