As I walked into a crowded Gokul’s Ice Cream parlor at almost midnight, my head was imagining all the wonderful flavors I could order. While I stood waiting in the line, my eyes wandered and caught hold of a few faces.
Amongst the almost all adult crowd, I saw faces of people who were either tired of waiting or tired of working the entire day and just wanted some sleep. There were also those who were tired simply worrying about the amount of calories they just absorbed.
Amongst all these faces, I saw a face. A face of child desperately anticipating the arrival of her ice cream cone. Her head didn’t reach above the counter. She had no idea what was happening above her. Her eyes were only fixed on her dad’s hand movements. Her head never turned as she moved forward. The eyes gleamed of hope. And then came the ice cream cone.
It traveled from the server’s glove to the dad’s hand and finally it reached in front of her face. With the ice cream came a smile so bright and wide that it could have lit the entire room. It was a smile that could spread magic, a smile that exuded a positive aura, a smile that could have even made Lucifer happy. It was a smile of innocent happiness.
The fact is that every individual in there had a ice cream in their hands. But no one was as happy as that little girl. This raises the question: Do we lose our ability to feel happy easily when we grow up? Are the responsibilities of adult life so tantalizing that we need higher standards of happiness?
Or is it that the innocence of happiness faded with away with each candle we added to our birthday cake? Has the child within us died with its innocence buried? Is our happiness tied with our next promotion, next holiday, or the next party? Or could it be that the innocence is only suppressed within us?
Can the little things make us feel happy? Can a team’s victory make our day? Can a song on the radio lift our spirits? Can cutting a cake be exciting again? Can we get a chance to jump, laugh, sing, and dance for the smallest of reasons?
Maybe we can….if we allow ourselves to succumb to the innocence of happiness.