My happiest memory

‘Happiness’ is quite a strange concept. When you are happy, you can never quite entertain the possibility of being unhappy. When you are happy, you are not weighed down by the burdens of the past or counting the infinite possibilities that the future holds. You are just… there. Everything just seems so natural, so close, and so beautiful. It’s quite a mesmerizing feeling.

But sooner or later, without you even realizing it, it fades away. It fades quicker than the blink of an eye or the click of your fingers. Only then does it become clear, how valuable it was and how much it meant to you. The happiness of the present then turns into memory and the stronger that memory, the closer you hold it to your heart.

If you ask random people about their favorite memory or happiest memory, they would hold their chin and take some time to come to a decision. Then they would tell you about an event from their childhood, or a major event in their life such as the day they asked for their partner’s hand in marriage or got a major promotion at work. For me, it’s quite different. My happiest memory is neither from my childhood nor did it have a significant impact on my life. Yet it is this memory that makes me smile when I feel down or lost.

With white clouds curling and posturing delightfully in the dark night sky, I got out to revel in the picturesque view in all its entirety. The only sound that I could hear was the delightful chirping of crickets and the calm and steady rage of the waves of river Platua striking against the boulders that got in its way. The two friends that I had brought for this trip to the mountains were peacefully and drunkenly asleep, unwilling to wake up even if I threatened to throw a glass of water at their faces.

Shaking my head as I remembered their boisterous selves an hour ago, I looked back at the cabin we had booked for the night and then at the trail that was supposed to lead me down to the bank of the river Platua. The view of the river back in the morning was one of the most picturesque ones I had witnessed in my life. Now, as the clouds roared silently, the river beckoned to me to witness its flair in the silence of the night. 

Although the old man who had rented us this cabin had warned us not to wander around after the sun went down, I was too mesmerized by the calling of the river to remember that. As I got closer and closer to the river bank through a narrow and twisted mountain path, I seemed to hear the crying of a little girl. Inevitably, a chill went up to my spine as I paced downwards. Instinctively, when I looked back though, I was surprised to find a little girl with a bruised knee and shoulder holding a whimpering puppy while crying out loud. She must decided, similar to me, to roam out with her puppy in the woods nearby and her little feet might have slipped onto something. 

So anyway, I approached the little one and asked her who she was and what she was doing there. Sobbing, she told me about herself as the dog snuff me out. As it turned out, she was the granddaughter of the old man who had warned me about going out. I was speechless thinking I was same as this rebellious kid in front of me. Gradually, when I tried to calm her down and she didn’t, I told her a story from my hometown. She took that well, asking questions that I answered in a childish manner as well. That was followed by another story, and then another.

As the dog yawned when the first ray of morning sun blessed us with the most aesthetic view I had ever seen, I had spent a night full of beauty and imagination with a new friend, a friend so pure that she seemed to be a spirit of nature. I still think back to that sunrise whenever I feel lost and try to re-imagine the world with the perspective of a child and inevitably, a smile blossoms on my face.