The other day I was hanging up the washing outside when Amy heard voices through the garden fence. The neighbours must have been outside. She peered curiously through the slats in the fence, and then to my astonishment shouted ‘Helloooo…’, ‘Helloooo?’
Her curiosity was so pure and her excitement so raw, that it brought a smile to my face. I had to laugh at the way in which children see the world. When did I grow so old that I stopped peeking through fences and saying ‘hello’ (in a purely non-peeping tom kind of way, you understand).
To her everything is an opportunity to have fun and explore, and it is this that serves as a constant reminder that I mustn’t let the routine of life weigh me down. We must all take the time to remember this.
Slow down to chase the butterfly dancing across your lawn, marvel at the rain trickling down the car window, throw the ball for your dog to happily chase down the passage, squeal with delight when you drink chocolate milk. Live life through the eyes of a child for one day, you may find you start to see the beauty in the simple things that life offers and that this will make you happy.
As for the fence, sadly no one answered her back this time, but maybe tomorrow they will. You just never know.
3 Comments
Superb advice 😉 I try to see things from different perspectives, but seeing the world through a completely different lens (and a closer-to-the-ground perspective) is incredibly valuable.
I wonder what would happen if I called over the fence, just to say hello? Everybody lives so close to someone else, but we barely know anything about one another (if anything at all).
We tend to do better via email, sms, whatsapp these days with emoticons than the face to face engagements. Try saying hello when you are out and about at the toll booth, grocery checkout line, petrol station and see what responses you receive. On the whole i’ve had very mediocre feedback, silence, mumbling, polite response. Every now and again I’ll be rewarded with an enthusiastic and heartfelt “hello!” that catches me by surprise. My research sample size is small so perhaps the responses are a direct results of who is asking (me) … best of luck to you all.
Tollbooth attendant ratings vary wildly, I can personally attest 😉