The other day I asked Anjali what the secret of her happiness was. She instantly pulled a smile on her face and batted her eyelids. As simple as that huh. Pull a smile on your face and bat your eyelids. Good. Maybe it is worth trying. Smile - even if you don't feel like it. Sometimes it helps, because you fool yourself into being happy from a space where you fooled yourself that you are unhappy. Really, the things we are unhappy about!
I forgot about our little conversation and went back to doing something else, reading and watching television at the same time when she popped up in front. She was waving her wand at me, something which I did not realise, and I asked her to move aside as she was obstructing my view. 'But nanna,' she said, rather miffed at my behaviour. 'I am making you happy with my magic wand.' Wow! Where did you get that from? 'Mamma told me that I can do anything with my magic wand so I decided to make you and mamma happy with his magic wand.' Now that was most unexpected. But children do come up with the most unexpected things.
As adults we'd first disbelieve the magic wand and its powers. We'd disbelieve that anything can ever make us happy. We'd be happy wallowing in our pool of unhappiness that makes us feel so important, so heroic. We'd tell the maker of the wand that he is a fake, a fraud, that his promises are useless. We'd not even touch the wand because God knows what it might bring - it might even bring happiness! Oh my God, that would be a disaster. And then, if ever there was reason for us to believe in the magic of the wand, I wonder what we'd use this wand to do. And to whom.
It's so simple to be like the child. And believe. In magic. In happiness. In our unlimited power. And in the simplicity of things. To all of you then, a magic swish from Anjali's magic wand, so you are all happy right now. Smile!
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| Anjali and the magic wand going to a Halloween party |
I forgot about our little conversation and went back to doing something else, reading and watching television at the same time when she popped up in front. She was waving her wand at me, something which I did not realise, and I asked her to move aside as she was obstructing my view. 'But nanna,' she said, rather miffed at my behaviour. 'I am making you happy with my magic wand.' Wow! Where did you get that from? 'Mamma told me that I can do anything with my magic wand so I decided to make you and mamma happy with his magic wand.' Now that was most unexpected. But children do come up with the most unexpected things.
As adults we'd first disbelieve the magic wand and its powers. We'd disbelieve that anything can ever make us happy. We'd be happy wallowing in our pool of unhappiness that makes us feel so important, so heroic. We'd tell the maker of the wand that he is a fake, a fraud, that his promises are useless. We'd not even touch the wand because God knows what it might bring - it might even bring happiness! Oh my God, that would be a disaster. And then, if ever there was reason for us to believe in the magic of the wand, I wonder what we'd use this wand to do. And to whom.
It's so simple to be like the child. And believe. In magic. In happiness. In our unlimited power. And in the simplicity of things. To all of you then, a magic swish from Anjali's magic wand, so you are all happy right now. Smile!
6 comments:
Want to share this beautiful lecture given by Will Durant on `We have a Right to be Happy Today' more than a fifty years ago
http://www.willdurant.com/youth.htm
Great stuff. Thanks for sharing the link.
SIR,WHO IS SHE??
-GAUTHAM
Anjali is my 3 year old daughter Gautham.
I totally agree with Anjali. Find your happiness in small things and you will find it most of the time. If you wait for that big cheque to come in or to have a big party with friends that is not going to happen every day.
Yes indeed. Life in small doses can get magical. And simple.
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