Simple Things

I am coming to the realization that joy in life is not a complicated venture. It doesn't require elaborate schemes and plans. Sometimes the simplest of activities can be all you need to realize happiness is all around you.

A case and point example:

Today I had a meeting with my Little from Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Jesyka. Usually I have some sort of plan for when we meet, maybe a hike or setting up a fish tank. Just something we can do together that doesn't cost a lot of money that an 10 year old would enjoy. Today however, I did not have an activity planned. I had friends in town for the weekend and didn't really have time to brainstorm. But I figured we would find something to do for a couple of hours. So I picked her up, and we hit the road.

At first we took a walk along the Hudson, taking turns to see how far we could throw sticks into the slowly flowing river. After a little while, we both became bored of that and headed back to the car.

We ended up at my old elementary school. It brought back a flood of memories; the feeling of wind on my face as I flew through the air on swings, straining and reaching my toes as far as they could stretch to touch the branches of the enormous pine trees, dangling from monkey bars, running across the kickball field. My childhood was so tangible I could almost hear the playground screams and feel the sharp contact of a red rubber ball on my LA Lights sneakers. For one whole hour, I forgot that I was an adult and did just what the rush of childhood inhibition beckoned. I ran from one piece of playground equipment to next because running is more fun than walking, when Jes and I played bank with an imaginary drive up window, I used all the different accents and dialects I could come up with, and made noises of buttons beeping, money counting, change drawers closing. We took turns being teller and customer and quit only when it got too dark to continue. For one hour, I was a kid again. And as we walked back to the car, happy and smiling with cold-kissed pink cheeks, Jes turned to me and asked, "Can we play again next week?"

Absolutely.