If you are like me, you have wondered at times what kids think about different things. I wonder how they view the world around them as they try to make sense of it. I am especially curious about what they think before they get a vocabulary.
This morning as I went to get Mariah, my one year old, out of bed I realized by looking in her eyes how she decides whether a day is good or not. If she wakes up, it’s a good day. She is just excited to be alive. She loves bringing happiness to everyone around her. This is not to say that she is happy 24/7, but the only time she is unhappy is when her focus on life is being distracted by more terrestrial concerns, like being hungry or tired.
I’ve often thought about how a sense of wonder (being childlike) can make us much happier. It seems like my most frustrating days are those in which my expectations (reasonable or otherwise) aren’t met. It’s amazing how our perspective can shift when we realize how lucky we are to have good things in our lives. Go figure – apparently, counting one’s blessings makes one feel grateful and happy.
I like that thought. It makes me suspect that the only time our expectations are not met is when we focus on the expectations and forget the blessings. If we are childlike we can’t fail to be happy about life because we will be spending our time being amazed at what we have rather than thinking about what we don’t have.