Password: Happy

I had a moment of inspiration today.  It floated right in front of me, unsolicited, and it made me pause and stare into mid air.  I stretched my mind out to it, anxious for its little seed to land in the palm of my hand.  

 The boys and I started our regular trek down to the office to pick up the duty bag.  I pushed JJ in his car stroller as Aaron zoomed around me on his razor scooter.  When we reached the door of our apartment building Aaron melted into a pool of whines about something completely irrelevant.  Instead of trying to solve his crisis (that--quite frankly--confused me in the first place) I spread my body out across the door frame and said, "uh-oh...do you know the secret password?"  Aaron was intrigued.  His crisis ended and was replaced by a new, much more exiting problem to solve: guessing the secret password.

 He gave it a few guesses (as I thought of the answer), and then asked me what the secret password was.  "Happy," I said.  The secret password is happy.  "Happy?!" He said, twisting his eyebrows and contorting his grin into an adorable, surprised expression.  "Yep.  It's happy.  Only happy boys can pass through this door.  And, that was that.  We spent the rest of the walk to the mailbox and back blocking each other's paths to create a gate through which we could only pass by proclaiming the secret password.

As I watched Aaron scoot down the sidewalk, I thought of our little password.  Aaron has had a rough couple of days.  I can't imagine how it would feel to have your world endlessly spinning--vomiting and unable to walk or even open his eyes at times.  I hate watching him suffer.  But it is part of life.  Life is about suffering, and about overcoming it.  I guess we'll keep learning that together.

In spite of the challenges we've had in the past few days, as Aaron and I wandered around creating imaginary gates and demanding the secret password of each other, I thanked God for how full and happy my life is.  When Alma speaks of "the plan of happiness" (ch 42), he discusses it in the context of suffering and being "cut off temporally and spiritually from the presence of God."  Yet, he calls it the plan of happiness.  Why?  Because that's the bottom line.  "Adam fell that men might be and men are that they might have joy."

The password is happy.  I will have sorrow.  I will have disappointment.  I will be discouraged from time to time.  My kids will have all of that (and then some). But, though it all--and even because of it all, I can be happy.  The "plan of happiness" is simple (not easy...simple).  Jesus said (John 16:33), "These things have I spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." 

 I'm grateful to be happier now than I ever have been--especially when spontaneous moments like daddy-assisted pull ups happen regularly in our home.  I love these boys more than anything.