I Spy.

Remember the game, I Spy? I loved playing it as a child and was so happy to be able to play it again when my children were small. It’s just a game. But inside that game might just be the key to happiness. 

Crazy, you say? Maybe. 

Here’s a refresher on the how to play the game. First rule, keep your eyes open. Second rule, look around you to find something to share. Third rule, call out to the other players what you see. It can be anything: a car, bus, house, plant, bird, bee, flower, tree, plane, building. It can be anything and everything that you see out your window. 

I want to make a special note of the words, ‘outside your window’.  Because we all have our own windows on the world. What we see, if we bother to even look, can give us a whole new view of the world inside and out. Because no matter what’s out there to see, we still filter it all through our very own set of windows, our eyes and our minds. 

What’s outside my own set of windows?
I spy pink and purple hygrangeas.

And I spy a copper moon.

I spy a garden with lettuce, tomatoes, zucchini and a tiny pepper. 

And

I spy water trickling into overflowing flowers. 

I spy a big, bright blue sky, bees feasting on hibiscus flowers and red berries growing. 

I could go on and on and on about the beauty in the world around me. And that’s the point, actually. There are many, many, many things to see and  and call out to others, if I just keep my eyes open.   

Answering the age old question, what is happy. 

Sadly, I’ve spent many hours, days and months with my eyes closed to what’s really around me. Missing my dog. Missing my kids. And since turning a certain decade, I’ve been too busy worrying about death and endings and being sad that I’ve forgotten what happy really is. 

So, of course, I went searching on the internet. But guess what? Happiness isn’t there, no matter what book, or class, or infomercial they want to sell. The reason you can’t buy happiness as the saying goes, is because you don’t need to. It’s free. 

It always there. In the midst of a very sad moment, leaning against my cedar tree, I heard the answer to my question. Happy is right where you’re standing. I thought, sure, that’s easy. But that’s the point, it is. 

I spy a living, breathing body. I spy sunlight shimmering on the lake. I spy a duck paddling. I spy a home. 

I spy happy. And it is as easy as child’s play, I just forgot the game was to play.