ONE SMALL WORD

Beautiful Day

Today was a beautiful spring day.  Unfortunately, we have not had many days like this in New England this year.  My daughter got off the bus proclaiming, "I have no homework today!"  In the next breath, she asked, "Can we go to the playground?" She had been practicing some gymnastics moves on the bars during recess and wanted to show them to me.

Initial Doubt

I won't lie, my initial thought was:  If we go to the playground, I won't get anything done around the house.  I had some housework I wanted to finish as well as some things I was doing on the computer.  If we stayed home, the kids could play outside and I could finish what I was doing in the house.

Saying "Yes"

But then I looked at my 9-year-old daughter and realized that there won't be many more times that she begs to go to the playground.  In 9 short years, she'll be off to college.  I looked into her face and saw her excitement and so I said "Yes. We can go."

It was last minute, so even though I texted several friends to see if anyone wanted to meet us, we ended up at the park alone.  It was just the three of us, but my kids played with each other like best friends.  We all enjoyed the sunshine and beautiful, clear day, and I felt so happy that I had dropped what I was doing to enjoy life and let my kids have fun.

I am so glad I told my daughter "yes."  That one small word made life so much richer today.