Recently, I was at Costco grazing on free samples, when I came upon a sample of some vitamin drink promoted by Dr. Oz. The sample lady was going on about some enzyme that the body stops producing as we age. She says, "I know you don't have to worry about this yet, but when you get to be 30..." I laughed loudly and obnoxiously. She thought I was under 30?! AWESOME!!! My day went from good to great (I wasn't even wearing make-up!). And while people have always said that I look younger than I am, I don't think it has that much to do with my physical appearance. Sure, I drink lots of water, pile on the sunscreen and am completely repulsed by cigarette smoke, but I think it's more than that. I think I appear young because I love life like a 7 year old.
Lets go back to when I was about 7. I always remember as a child being distinctly aware of how lucky I was to be a kid. I knew life was going to get hard and was really in no rush to grow up. I remember thinking about how I had to enjoy being a kid as long as I could. So my summers were spent underwater pretending to be a mermaid with the two best friends any girl could possibly have (and still are! xoxo) Afterschool, I remember laughing so hard that milk and brownies would always somehow manage to shoot out of my nose. If there was something to climb on, I was up it. If there was something slide down, I was there. If there was music on, I was singing and dancing. I was in perpetual motion, and the happiest kid you ever met. This continued right on through junior high. And while my innocence faded somewhere around my 16th birthday as I found myself in the middle of a love triangle dealing with secrets and heartbreak and feelings that I was too young to be addressing, I would still secretly watch cartoons every Saturday morning. The best part about meeting Mr. Jones was that I finally had someone to play with. He had younger siblings who we would take to the park (YAY SLIDES!) and the zoo. I would braid the girls' hair and dress up their dolls and watch Blues Clues. Not too long after that, my godson was born and I was given the challenge of becoming the bestest most fun aunt in the world. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! He needed someone to crawl through the tubes with him at Chuck-E-Cheeses and take him down the big slide and make sure the ball pit wasn't too deep. And now I have my own two little monkeys. And the best days of my life are the ones where I manage to totally engage myself in their world. Kids know how to have fun. Last week we were invited to a party at one of those bouncy places (SCORE!). Parents are encouraged to bounce with their kids. So I dove right in. At one point I looked around at the other parents sitting on the benches texting, watching the clock. I was vaguely aware that some of them were looking at me as I bounced in the Mickey Mouse house wishing I had done more kegals when I was pregnant. And I thought to myself, why don't they want to play? Don't they know how much fun they could be having?
Most adults don't really remember how to have real fun. Sure, it's fun to have a couple of drinks once in a while and lose your inhibitions. But what if you were able to live your life without having inhibitions in the first place. What if you didn't worry about whether or not you're going to get dirty or look silly. I look silly all the time. And, I'm more fun sober. I'm not going to pretend that I am some super mom who is always totally focused on playing with her kids. I will never refer to myself as their friend. I set boundaries, keep them safe and love adult attention as much as anyone else. But the thing is that there has to be a balance. If there's an opportunity to do something you know is fun, just do it. On Saturday, we're going to the beach. And I promise I will still be slathering on the sunscreen, packing tons of water and worrying about how fat my ass looks just like every other mom. Once I get there, and the kids need me to "watch" them in the water, and "show" them how to build a sandcastle or dig the biggest hole EVER, I'll forget about my fat ass, frizzy hair and sand that manages to find its way into everything. And a now cancer free Mr. Jones will be right there beside me making every effort to live what's left of this life to the fullest. Living happily ever after is about LIVING.
I hope you will pass this on. Click like above, share on FB or Twitter below. I am so tired of the doom and gloom of everyone's lives. People need to know the secret. This is HOW you can be happy. Live like a 7 year old. Party like its 1985. Climb to the top of something and jump off. Find a 7 year old that you love, and let them show you a good time. I promise they won't disappoint!
Sending love, happiness and good times out to you all!
