“Watch the sunrise at least once a year, put a lot of marshmallows in your hot chocolate, lie on your back and look at the stars, never buy a coffee table you can’t put your feet on, never pass up a chance to jump on a trampoline, don’t overlook life’s small joys while searching for the big ones”- H. Jackson Brown Jr.
We must not overlook the small chances we have to smile. How many of us watch in awe the sight of a rainbow? I would say most of us wouldn’t even notice one in a clear sky, including me until very recently.
I have a 10 year old brother that never fails to point out the little miracles of life. The little moments I wouldn’t have taken the time to appreciate otherwise. Some days he’d point out something as simple as a bird’s nest or a butterfly and we would sit there, observing, talking, laughing; and bonding over something that we could easily overlook while engrossed in our own busy lives. And very rarely, we would be blessed to be able to see an egg hatch or a mother feed her baby and we would just watch it awe at a demonstration of life’s little miracles. These are the moments that give depth and meaning in life; the moments that could easily slip right by if you weren’t aware of them.
In the grand scheme of things, you don’t need to do something big to be happy… going to an exotic vacation or an amazing water park does not define happiness… it is being around the people you love and little things that happen on a daily basis that really matter. You could easily go on a water slide one hundred times and you would eventually get tired of it, but each sunset you look at with the people you love brings a new experience and a new memory that you could hold in your heart forever.
Nobody can make you happy; only you have control over your own happiness. It’s your choice. So ask yourselves: Do I want to be happy? And then DO something about it. Make a conscious effort to smile more and appreciate the little things in life. Life is magical. It just takes opening yourself up to it for the magic to work. So if happiness is knocking on your door, answer it and embrace it.