Happiness is a great feeling to experience. That goes without saying. We live experience happiness and grow because of sadness. Or so I think that is what that movie Inside Out was trying to tell us as a whole. Sadness is a key experience of our lives. Children get to expereince it when their cheerios fall to the floor or if they miss their parents who are out on a trip. So, we get happiness and sadness.

Besides awe, I really get into the emotion state of anticipation. As someone who grew up in a tough neighborhood, the anticipation of something grand to come was always driving me.  I love engaging in the visualization of a future event or state. Looking forward to something is a wonderful state in which to be.

In that vein, my son has been in grand anticipation of Christmas. Everyday he tells us how many days are left till Christmas. I assume many kids do that. Its the big countdown. For us adults, maybe our big countdown is that big apple falling in Time Square. It is like this old path of ours from the train station to our house in New York.  Boy do I miss that path. My son loved picking up the snow and throwing it around.

We don’t have snow out here in Los Angeles. Yet, my son is still in high anticipation mode. The gleam in his eye when he wakes up and toddles over to the tree just lights up my day. I love seeing his eyes that are filled with anticipation. To him the future is beautiful and awesome. And I have to see that anticpation in eyes. It is addicting. It is invigorating and fills me.

With children, there are new things that come to anticipate. They anticipate. Events come to fruition. They anticipate new events. As adults sometimes we forget about that. We veer away from anticipation and veer into dread. We start anticipating dread. That is not a good state of being. We need to be like kids and find those moments of grand anticipation.