The mysterious people

“Oh, how wonderful!”

The voice came from the basement. It was the joyful sound of their young daughter.

When her parents went down to see what it was all about, they were in for a surprise. The entire basement was flooded.

When one of today’s clients told me this story, I said:

“Imagine if we, as adults, could keep that same relaxed and playful attitude towards life.”

I was half-joking, of course. We can’t just make paper planes out of our bills and toss them away with a laugh. We can’t cheerfully jump into a puddle of mud on our way to work.

Well, we could, but life would get pretty complicated.

Still, I think we’d all benefit from inviting more curiosity into our days. A bit more playfulness. Not taking everything so seriously all the time.

There’s a beautiful Swedish song from the 60s called Det gåtfulla folket (The mysterious people). Its lyrics are about the open and curious minds of children. It ends with these words, freely translated:

There a worthless thing becomes a treasure
There beds become ships one night and sail to the moon
There are kingdoms none of us can take away from them
All are children, and they belong to the mysterious people

There — that’s what we need a little more of here.