Copyrighted by Lorna Tedder. Originally published in Love in the Third Degree.
Aislinn was unexpectedly with me this afternoon and tonight while her dad went to an out-of-town party and Shannon went to prom, so we ended up gardening together, having dinner, and then a little grocery shopping for fresh fruit and organic milk.
The nearly deserted grocery store had one of those annoying motion-detecting-sing-a-long-thingies near the fruit aisle. I usually avoid those things like the plague.
But as I rounded the corner with my cart and heard the music, there was an adorable girl of about 4 or 5 standing there clapping her hands to make some plastic flower sing to her.
She looked up, grinning, and we caught each other’s gaze, and I grinned back.
Normally, I would have turned into Mother of the World, upon seeing that no grown-ups were anywhere around, and hung over her like a guardian angel. It’s weird now that it didn’t even cross my mind.
But I was too stunned by the song she was clapping to—one I heard recently in the car with Aislinn and one I’ve heard all my life in church where it was given religious overtones.
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands.
Not if you’re happy but if you’re happy and know it. But then comes the important part:
If you’re happy and you know it, then your life will surely show it.
Yeah, if you’re happy and you know it, go head.
Clap!
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