Small Pleasures

Hi All,

I just read an article on Yahoo about small pleasures to enjoy everyday and thought I would post a story that brings me pleasure every time I remember it.

We have 2 sons who have several close friends. Their friends ask to come over quite a bit and we usually have an extra boy or two (and more recently, a girlfriend) at our house. We've grown to love these extra kids and we have hopes and dreams for them, similar to what we have for our own children. We have grown very fond of them all.

On one occassion, we had 2 extra boys as well as our 2 sons all crammed into one son's bedroom. They were all in various stages of gaming or surfing the web while carrying on a conversation. It's always amazing to me that no matter what this group of boys is doing individually, they can each keep track of the larger conversation and they know each other's "lingo". This particular evening, someone was also playing music on their ipod. The boy playing the music was taking requests and would skip around and find different songs. Sometimes they would only listen to half of it, sometimes someone would sing along, sometimes a couple would sing along in silly falsetto voices just to get a laugh. At some point the music became the background and the boys' voices took over again with their bits and pieces of conversation all meshed together.

Have you heard the song "Whatever You Like"? I can't remember who sings it, because I am not that hip. But it's probably in the R & B category (if that's even still a category-I am so not hip). Anyway, this song comes on, and all 4 of these 15 year old boys start singing along in near perfect harmony. Not just one line, not just the chorus, but the entire song. (Disclaimer: It was the edited version!) I was reading in the living room when the singing started and I just put my book down and sat there with a big goofy grin on my face wishing my husband could hear this. It was awesome!

But that's not even the best part. The best part, for me, was the next song. I could not have predicted it in a million years! The next song was "Burning Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash! This group of 15 year old boys who had just sang the newest, coolest song, were now singing a song that was originally recorded before any of them were born and they all knew the words! I was blown away. My face actually hurt from smiling so big. I wanted it to go on forever.

The singing broke up near the end of "Burning Ring of Fire" and they went back to their normal conversation, but that little instance of 4, 15 year old voices all raised spontaneously in song will live in my heart forever and it brings me pleasure every time I think about it.