Keep it Simple:

Yesterday was the kind of Chicago day where the sky hangs over your brow, the grey seeps into your skin, and before you can say: "gloom" you have morphed with the weather. In an attempt to heighten our spirits, I turned up the music in the car. Natasha Beddingfield and Sean Kingston and their sugar-pop, commercialized song did the trick. Judge me, go ahead....It's catchy.

My two year old screams from the back: "Turn it up mommy! This is fun!" and it was. In the time it takes to bop your head and sing off key to the radio, we were out of the dangers of bummy moods.It got me thinking....Remember when being happy and having fun was simple?

It didn't depend on external factors of who is going to call, or not call, or work troubles materializing and dissipating, it didn't hang largely in the balance of someone else, or worse, the perception other people had of us. It was pure. It was simple. It was very present in every moment. One by one.

Things I remember finding pure joy in:
- Eating ice cream and getting sticky filthy
- Playing "Marco, Pollo" and the smell of chlorine all over me.
- Handstands
- Skidding out on a BMX bike ( I was a tom-boy)
- Finding a note in your cubby that said: "I like you"
- Roller skating
- Waking up on a day with no school
- Walking barefoot in grass, sand, mud...etc
- Trampolines
- Conquering mini-fears

All too often it takes a near star-alignment, incredible happenstance, or tragic disaster for us to truly revel in the gifts we have. The innate right we hold to breathe, and choose our mind's state. Maybe, just for the sake of drilling down to basics, perhaps only for a few minutes....Let the idea resonate. Think of two or three "little" things your childhood self found pleasure in. Try and fit a variation of it in today. It can do wonders.

I double-dog super dare you!