Yesterday it rained cats and dogs. In the play yard there was very little dry land. Only little muddy island stood between massive puddles big enough for 5-7 children to frolick and flail madly in. It had been raining with pretty consistent furor since the previous evening and by the time our fleet of rubber-clad munchkins took to the ground it had taken on more of a swampland-esque texture with grains of sand and plastic toys bobbing about in it. Immediately little masses would gather in the boggiest parts, thrashing arms and shrieky laughter kicking up waves of mucky, greyish-brown under a murky Oakland sky dripping severely. In one direction you would see a little one with a plastic cup gingerly pouring muck into the galoshes of his unsuspecting accomplice. In another eyeshot you might get a pack of wily ones smashing into the puddle with plastic baseball bats and giggling uncontrollably at the effect.

For the first thrity or so minutes i could only stand watching, half-amazed and half-perplexed at the scene before me. As an adult we lose so much, we think that we need so much to be happy. We placate ourselves with entertainment and fine dining and trifling hobbies while the lucky children need only a little rain and a pair of galoshes to have the whole world. Its part of the reason i am here now, to rediscover that place where life is abundant again, where the sun shines and the birds chirp and i am grateful even without entertainment systems and designer suits and a cool new ringtone for my cell phone. Working with children and the developmentally disabled has revealed to me how profoundly little we truly need in this world and how vastly much time we waste working to get that which we do not need. So much work in pursuit of so little happiness - its a major theme in this world. Lasting happiness, i believe, is a state of mind that must be carefully cultivated through compassion and understanding and patience. It will not be found in a beautiful body or a regimen of pills or a bottle of beer. Those things will only bring the fragile joy that washes away like sandcastles at every sunset.

However i know that fundamental to this realization is the fact that we (i) cannot judge those who seek happiness in the world of pleasures because its all based in the same basic feeling: that we want to be content. Even as i watch my kids and see them growing little by little, chanting the refrain to the latest overtly sexual and demeaning pop song or parroting hateful speech from movies and TV must i remember that it is my place to hold the light that they bring to my life and give it back to them as much as i can manage. Its like the oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange that takes place between plants and animals (and humans). Each has something vital that the other needs to grow and thrive. Children need me to teach and guide and give form to their chaotic lives. I need children to remember that happiness is a rainy day. Though i live a life where money plays a trifling part, i am filthy rich.