Whilst driving along in the car today, I was struck by just how beautiful everything looked with the sun shining on the frozen snow and it got me to thinking about what else there is in my life that gives me pleasure.  Simple things that don’t require money spent, or supreme effort to achieve, just the simple things like birds singing, trees coming to life after the winter, singing along to a favourite song on the car radio (I’m a closet Karaoke lover).

There are so many things that we leave behind (or sometimes get pushed into leaving behind) as we grow up. One of them being the time spent enjoying small pleasures like making daisy chains.  Just like the little girl in the music video above how many of you loved to dress up and dance and sing, or play air guitar to an adoring audience, not caring who saw or heard you, in fact an audience was welcome and encouraging.

But, since “growing up” do you find like me that now there’s a certain amount of “learned” embarrassment when you’re discovered dancing round the room to a favourite tune.  (Although, as my children will attest, as I get older the embarrassment doesn’t always stop me).

Children enjoy life with a never ending amount of unchained pleasure and when sadness creeps in, it doesn’t last long.  Just watch any four year old puddle jumper fall over in the mud, cry at the shock and then push the parent away and resume puddle jumping, as if the fall never happened.

As we get older we train ourselves to not behave like children, in fact other adults enforce that training by telling us to “grow up”.  What we need to learn instead is where and when this behaviour is appropriate, not to either lose or squelch the behaviour completely.  For example, if you are at home and your favourite song is playing, why not pretend you are holding a microphone or a guitar and dancea round the room belting out the lyrics?  I’m also not averse to a little puddle jumping when I’ve got my rain boots on.  Give it a try and see how light your heart feels.  Don’t look around to see who’s watching, chances are the whole episode brought smile and joy to whoever is in the audience.

TTFN (ta ta for now)

Amanda