What is the best greeting in the world?

If you could bottle the way your grandparents greeted you… there’s nothing like it.

There’s a feeling that you will never again bring someone this much joy just by existing.

Their voice lifting completely when they realise it’s you on the phone.
Walking through their back door and finding them at the table, their whole face changing.
Their body telling you how excited they are before they even speak.

My Pop, after not seeing me for over a year.
I surprised him straight from the airport.

His face.
His old, gentle, big hands grabbing mine.

“It’s you.”

I’ll never be greeted exactly like that again.

And that’s okay, because I still get to witness it.

I see it in my daughter.
In the way my parents greet her.
The way their eyes well up when they say goodbye.

I see it in the beaming faces of my in laws when they appear on FaceTime.

The best greeting in the world doesn’t disappear.
It just changes hands.