Friday, August 12, 2016

If You're Happy and You Know It...

Here at the Nutthouse, we love our TiVo, so a lot of commercials go unnoticed.  When I get sucked into a project, though, I'm not exactly on top of the remote and the fast forward button gets a well-deserved break. Recently, as I toiled away on something truly important, like checking out the latest and greatest Pinterest has to offer, a Target commercial came on. Suddenly, all-too-familiar lyrics in a fun new remix (the likes of which could never be ignored by a mom and preschool teacher) pulled me out of my laptop reverie, demanding my attention. "If you're happy and you know it, clap your hands. Si te sientes amor feliz aplaude asi..."

Tuned in now, but still toying with my computer, I listened- simply enjoying the fresh presentation of tired material, until the altered final line of this new version gave me pause: "If you're happy and you know it, then your life will surely show it..." Such a small change, that one little word- and yet it takes a simple childhood melody about celebrating happiness and transforms it into a lesson about creating it. 


 Life is a series of choices. Many things happen to us that are beyond our control - things we didn't, wouldn't, couldn't choose - but we can choose how to conduct ourselves, what lessons we will take away, what attitudes to move forward with. We can choose to cover ourselves in insecurity, devastation, or despair. Or, we can choose to dust ourselves off, to focus on the many blessings we still have, and refuse to let happiness be a fickle thing out of our reach.  We build our lives;  we should build them with the things that give us joy.  When we do that, happiness inevitably follows, and of course, our lives will show it. 

 From now on, when I sing about happiness with the children at school or at home, we will still sing about the smiles that celebrate happiness, but I also want to add this new verse. They need to know that a happy life is created and not inherited. Life is what you make it, boys and girls- so make it happy.



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