Have you checked out the latest I-AM Magazine? Here’s what I contributed this past month:

Propped up at my kitchen bench, sat my insatiably curious 3 year old son, sipping his ‘”popper juice” (as its affectionately known to he) enjoying an afternoon snack. At his side was I, typing away furiously on my laptop, using one ear to listen to his non-stop chatter and attuning the other to my thoughts as I tried to release them from my mind and into my blog. Suddenly, there came a request for a straw from which to drink. I gave him an odd look, wondering where this previously unheard of notion could have originated. It had never been asked before.

Scrounging through the cupboards I managed to rustle up a brightly coloured straw that had somehow miraculously escaped my meticulous pantry overhaul of last month and plopped it into his cup. His blue eyes lit up like a flawless summery sky; you’d have thought I’d handed him a year’s worth of Christmas gifts such was the glistening glance of appreciation he gave it.

I turned my attention back to my task at hand until a peal of laughter filtered through the room. He was so utterly entranced by this seemingly simple activity of drinking through a straw that it made me stop in my tracks. Instead of trying to finish the piece I’d been trying all day to write I ceased work and concentrated on the sheer bliss that was now plastered across my son’s face.

In that moment it hit home to me about the humble pleasures of life and how adults all too easily miss them because of miring ourselves in work, guilt, chores – life!

It reminded me that it comes down to being present in the moment. I am guilty more often than I’d like to admit that while I may be physically present, my mind will whiz far away to the many apparently pressing issues that vie for my undivided attention. But, as my son showed me in that instance, is that every little minute counts. Each act should be soaked up as it happens. Sure, the tantrums (and daily teeth cleaning dramas) are certainly something I can’t stop and savour when they hit but there are other magical moments that shine in the life of a child that we could all heed.

Who knew a little slice of simple happiness could come through a straw? Not I, but I’ll drink to that!