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12/12
1997
54
ne of my favorite traits in
children is their natural exu-
berance. It's positively conta-
gious, and the best thing is that it%
sincere.
Several weeks ago my husband
and I had gone temporarily insane
and invited 20 3- and 4-year-olds to
our house for Yitzhak's fourth-birthday
party. Aside from the cake and ice
cream, the biggest hit of the day was
a game called, "What Time Is It, Mr.
Fox?" in which one person (in this
case me, because I did not want to
do all that running; my idea of exer-
cise is picking up the TV remote) sits
on one side of the room and encour-
ages children to slowly creep toward
him, until at last he jumps up and
chases the little boys and girls. I
made the game even more fun by
asking the children to scream as loud
as they could while we played.
As the afternoon came to an end,
one boy picked up his plastic goodie
bag and told me, "This was the best
party ever!"
I felt like a million bucks.
There are so many things in life that
make children happy. Sometimes, I
forego our usually healthy dinner —
something along the lines of vegeta-
bles and rice — for blueberry pan-
cakes. For my children, this is cause
for celebration. And if I agree to
some whipped topping, as well, they
likely will become so excited as to be
unable to contain themselves. Their
tiny bodies will literally tremble with
happiness.
A trip to the store can become a
glorious adventure. "Tonight we're
going to Meijer% and we're going to
have a lot of fun!" I told my children
last week, the night before
Thanksgiving. "We're going to get a
Coke and you can each get a treat,
maybe stickers or a coloring book,
and we'll see the goldfish and we're
going to ride the horse" — a
mechanical horse that costs just a
penny.
From my children's reaction, you
would have thought we were going
to Disney World.
And it was fun. We sang songs as
we strolled up and down the aisle
(some people looked at us like we
were crazy, but most smiled) we dis-
covered an unexpected pleasure in a
"Winnie the Pooh" video playing in
the music section, and my children
rode the horse not once but four
times.
I'm not sure what it is about aging
that makes us lose this excitement for
small pleasures. Perhaps we grow too
weary or busy to get happy about
much, maybe it's just all too familiar,
or maybe we become greedy. As our
years increase so does our need fo", -,=,
newer and bigger and more.
There's another problem that further
complicates matters, and that is our
inability to live in the moment.
Maybe I really can get happy about
that Coke and a new lipstick from
Meijer's, but it's going to fade quick
enough if I start thinking about all tHt
laundry I have to do, those phone
calls I do not want to return, and that
bill I have to pay.
Often I look at my baby Talya and
she is smiling at me for no reason,
except that I am smiling at her. And I
am jealous, because I want to be like
that, too, and not worrying about th -p
laundry and the bills.
But sometimes I can manage to be
like her. I forget everything except the
fact that I am here, right now, and
Talya is laughing because I have
started singing at the top of my lungs
and throwing a tiny red ball up and
down and telling my daughter, whc, ,
can't understand a word I'm saying,
that I have the amazing ability to
combine the skills of Placid()
Domingo and Michael Jordan ana
perhaps I should take my great act
on the road.
And it's in these small moments that
I most feel most alive, and all my
senses revel in the magic of being
and in the sweetness of life.
Elizabeth Applebaum
AppleTree Editor