Sometimes when I'm down, I think about that "Happiness" song from You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown! that we learned in choir one year in grade school:

It's a simple song meant to encourage children to appreciate the little things in life: finding a pencil, two kinds of ice cream, five different crayons. Whether you find these things very happy or not is up for debate, but I like the reminder that small moments used to make us all smile as children.

Although--ice cream and pencils still make me happy, let's be honest. I don't think there's anything silly or immature about finding happiness in some of the things that made you happy as a kid. It doesn't mean you haven't grown up or you're in denial of the realities of life that can weigh you down.

Last Christmas, I was hanging out with Cortney and wrecking journals, and as we ran around the park, throwing paper airplanes and running up and down a grassy hill, I thought to myself, "I couldn't do this in New York." I mean--I could. But I feel like I had put that part of me aside. And I wonder what six-year-old Traci would say about that.

The world is a heavy place, and it will only continue to get heavier as you grow up and the people you love grow up. It's OK to still climb trees and share sandwiches, and find happiness in it.