Do you ever wonder what happened to that cute little thing you used to be… spinning in circles just to feel dizzy… swinging higher and higher just to feel the breeze… resisting both naps and eating weird things like broccoli or lima beans…
Somehow, somewhere along the way, we grew up. We go to work, we eat everything on our plate - much to the stretched out horror of our pants - we pay bills (mostly) on time and we give serious thoughts to planning a vacation that only involves sitting on a beach with a good book… just sitting. We slam our hands down on the alarm clock every morning, force ourselves to get out of bed and chug down gallons of caffeine as fast as we can. We often forget to smile at strangers, to wave at our neighbors, or to say “thank you” for a kindness extended our way.
When did that happen? When did we stop finding something to smile about every day, or a reason to be excited every morning? When did we forget that we really like knock-knock jokes?
Of course, being that excited all the time did require us to take naps, and it’s not exactly easy to look at your boss and say, “No, sorry, I can’t complete this project cuz I need to go ni-night.”
But I would like to recapture just a little bit of that effusiveness. As one who is never short on the silly, I need to find a way find the joy again.
Maybe I’ll start wearing jellies again. Or jumping on my bed. Or eating a 3 bean salad and not eating the yucky lima beans until someone reminds me they’re good for me. (Really, who eats lima beans unprovoked? Grossy gross.)
Maybe when I’m smiling when I don’t mean it, I’ll just try to mean it, at least in someway. Maybe.
