While picking my son up from school on Friday, I noticed a commotion that all of a sudden came over the students and parents who were around the streets and parking lot. I took a second to turn my attention towards the direction from which this energy was coming, and when I finally focused my eyes on it, I started laughing, I smiled, and I felt a wave of positive energy come over me.
Was this a mythical creature handing out marshmallows and roses, Scott? No, it was a man dressed in a frog suit, riding a bike, gallivanting through the neighborhood. And it was awesome.
What was so fascinating about all of it was that I was sitting at this stoplight, right by the school, waiting to take off, and my energy was low. It was the end of the day, I was thinking about our weekend plans, having the usual “how was your day” conversation with my son, and then all of a sudden, it felt like the energy in the air changed. You could hear the buzz of people all around, the students, the parents, the aura was just different, all because a man in a frog suit came riding by, on a bicycle.
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Now, you might be thinking, “Scott, what the hell are we talking about here, a man in a plushy frog suit?”
Yes, that’s exactly what I’m talking about, but it has nothing to do with the man in the frog suit; it has to do with the fact that sometimes we just need to be open to a little bit of happiness in our hearts, especially when we least expect it.
The older we get, the more we condition ourselves to move through life with emotional blinders on. We become so consumed with responsibilities, deadlines, bills, meetings, routines, stress, and trying to stay ahead that we stop allowing random moments of joy to enter the building. Everything becomes transactional. Everything becomes scheduled. Everything needs a purpose, an outcome, or a measurable return on investment.
Meanwhile, some guy dressed like a giant frog riding a bicycle down the street somehow manages to create more genuine happiness in thirty seconds than anything in your workday would.
What made the whole thing so special was watching how contagious the energy became once people allowed themselves to lean into it. Teenagers who usually pretend not to care about anything were laughing and recording videos on their phones. Parents sitting in traffic started smiling at each other as everyone had silently agreed to participate in the same weird little moment together. Kids were pointing, laughing, waving, and shouting. For a few brief minutes, nobody seemed worried about the cost of gas, work stress, homework, dinner plans, performance reviews, social media arguments, or all the other noise that normally consumes our brains every second of the day.
Everybody just existed in the moment together.
I think moments like that matter far more than we give them credit for. Life is heavy sometimes. Careers are heavy. Parenting is heavy. Relationships, responsibilities, uncertainty about the future, trying to figure yourself out while simultaneously pretending you already have yourself figured out, all of it can slowly wear you down if you are not careful. Those random, unexpected moments of joy become emotional oxygen, whether we realize it or not. They interrupt the mental spiral long enough to remind us that happiness does not always arrive through some massive life-changing event.
Sometimes it arrives wearing a ridiculous frog costume on a bicycle in the middle of a school zone.
The dangerous part is that many people have become so guarded, cynical, distracted, or emotionally exhausted that they no longer let those moments in anymore. They see something playful, random, or joyful and immediately feel the need to criticize it, dismiss it, analyze it, or move past it as quickly as possible. Somewhere along the way, a lot of adults convinced themselves that seriousness equals maturity. Meanwhile, the people who tend to carry the most positive energy are usually the ones still willing to laugh at stupid things, wave at strangers, dance when music comes on, and embrace moments that break up the monotony of everyday life.
There is a reason certain memories stay with us forever, even though they seem insignificant on paper. Most of the time, it is not the expensive dinner, the luxury purchase, or the perfectly planned event that leaves the deepest emotional mark. It is the unexpected moments. It is the random conversations. The inside jokes. The car rides. The weird memories nobody else would understand. The moments where life briefly stops feeling so structured and rehearsed, and instead feels human again. Those moments sneak up on you when your heart is open enough to receive them.
So yes, this entire article is apparently about a man dressed in a frog suit riding a bicycle through a neighborhood on a Friday afternoon. More importantly, though, it is about remembering that joy still exists all around us if we are willing to stop long enough to notice it. The world already gives us enough reasons to feel stressed, angry, overwhelmed, and emotionally drained every single day. You do not need to resist the small moments that try to pull you back toward happiness, too.
Sometimes the best thing you can do for yourself is simply allow yourself to smile when the frog rides by.