walking on sunshine

We are both there watching the kids bounce. The inflatable house is rocking, the squeals of the kids is permeating everything, occasionally and often the parents and non parents alike look over and grin. Who can't smile at bouncing kids.

I don't know the woman next to me. She's older, in her late 50's maybe and just as I'm thinking it's time to do some bouncing myself she looks over it looks like so much fun. I ask her if she's ever been inside one of these things and she shakes her head oh no, I can't even imagine it, I'd feel silly.

Silly is relative, I say. The question is, do you want to bounce? She looks at me for a long minute and smiles. Yes. So we climb in, me and this woman I do not know and we start jumping amidst the kids, the little ones tumbling all over the place from our weight. We are jumping and I see her laughing, her face is full of joy and she's going from tentative little jumps to great big ones and she throws back her head in laughter. Now this, she says, this is really fun.

And I think she's so beautiful in this moment and I'm reminded yet again how precious this life is and simple it can be if we'd all just let ourselves bounce.