This song always makes me go a little teary-eyed.

Part of it is the fact that the first time I heard it, it was in the trailer for the movie “Children of Men” starring Clive Owen, which posits a dystopian future where the world is struck with a plague of infertility, and Clive Owen finds himself guiding the first pregnant woman in 20 years to a faint hope known as the Human Project. Amidst the explosions, the gunfire, the angry mobs, the refugee camps, this song surges forth, making me think of an almost impossible spark of hope being ignited into a blazing fire that will change the world.

But “Hoppípolla” also happens to translate into “jumping into puddles”, and the song evokes the simplicity and unfettered joy of being a kid.

And I realize that this is what I’ve been looking for all this time—joy without limits, mirth without bound. Happiness is not something that can be acquired and displayed in a trophy case. It isn’t something that can be won. It’s not some kind of treasure or prize. It simply isn’t something static and well-defined. Happiness is an action, a state of active being. Happiness is living.

Sometimes I’m shocked by the things that I used to know, but keep forgetting for some reason.

You’ve got to make time in your life to play.

The answer is as simple, and as bewilderingly complex, as that.