If you’re happy and you know it…

Children’s sense of fun can make even a rainy day full of joy
It’s a Sunday afternoon. A gentle drizzle is keeping the outdoors too wet to head to the park, so parents like me, seem to have descended on the local indoor play centre. The place is buzzing with activity. My little fellow kicks off his shoes in utter glee as we enter.
Before I can provide him any meaningful instructions for our stay at the play centre, he is a million miles away from me, jumping ecstatically across an inflated “castle”. I look around to find an empty spot for myself. There is a table in the far corner that seems unoccupied and I make my way over.
My little chap is jumping from slide to slide by now. So I take out my laptop, plug in my earphones and put my music on. I have been wanting to write a blog post for a few days, so I start harnessing my thoughts towards my topic and string together a few sentences. They do not excite me as I read them back to myself. Backspace! Delete!
I look up for a moment and glance across the busy place to spot my little man, to make sure he is safe and enjoying himself. There are kids everywhere. Happy kids, bursting with laughter and joy. All of them.
I look around with a bit more of an effort to mark my son. I spot him perched on top of a slide, ready to scoot down. I wave to him from my seat. He does not notice me. So I wave again, frantically this time. All of sudden, he beams out a wide smile and waves back at me.
Another kid comes and sits on a similar slide next to him. They look at each other and smile. Then both of them look down at the entire length of the slide. They share another smile. As if to dare each other to race down that slide. From the other corner, I watch intently.
In a split moment, like two jockeys, they let go and start their drift down that slide. I focus on my son and his expressions. He moves from a gentle smile to having the widest, merry grin across his face as he feels the air in his hair, coming down the slide. Half way through the skid, he throws up his arms in the air in carefree abandon to feel the thrill a bit more.
By now, the smile is almost breaking out of his face. He looks across to the slide next to him to see how his competitor is faring, or perhaps, his companion. They both smile at each other again as they both touchdown. Sitting  at the bottom of the slide they both look up, as if to revisit the tingle they just shared. They erupt into joyful laughter as they do so.
Then, unexpectedly, the two boys race each other to the flight of stairs back up to the slide, getting ready for another tumble down. Obviously, they had a great time doing it the first time around.
That’s how simple life is intended to be, I tell myself.