Practical is never enough. It is practical to tie your shoes, but that goes without saying. Practical does not fill your heart. Perhaps you need red laces or to go barefoot and to be impractical as well. On the surface, what is practical about flying a kite? or wishing upon a star? or laughing?

Folding sheets is practical. Laundry is practical. Washing dishes is practical. All these things you know. Do them with love, and your practicality is holy.

But also place stars in your heart. Be rambunctious. Delight in delight for no reason at all.

And yet, when all is said and done, there is nothing more practical than joy. Joy will sustain you. Laundry will not.

Cotton is practical, but silk is too. It is practical to fill your heart with softness and beauty.

Hard facts have their place. Soft truth does too.

It is fine to count numbers, but that is not enough for you. Numbers must also be entwined with inspiration. The heart and the soul of the one who fingers the adding machine must also be counted.

How practical is it for a child to give you a dandelion? What are you going to do with it? And yet the gift of the dandelion is a beautiful act of love. Your heart never forgets when the sun was given to you by a little hand with a crushed dandelion in it.

How practical are colors? Yet a life must be filled with color. How practical is music? Yet it is a necessity. Your heart must fill itself with loveliness. Loveliness goes a long way.

Let your heart be beautiful. Lighten it with joy. Laden it not with duty.

Perhaps there is value in stepping in puddles.

How important is a dance? Yet life must be filled with it. Fill your life with tango as well as waltz.

Read a book for the sake of it. It does not have to be for gain. Let reading a book be a way to get into the heart of another. This way you give your consent to their being on earth and sharing themselves with you. You embrace their spirit and surge your own.

Today do something for no reason at all. Let no reason be your reason. See where this takes you. It will take you to new fields. I remind you that you are an adventurer on earth. Adventurers set out. They go somewhere they have never been before. They seek something. They do not follow yesterday's footsteps.

You may try to keep things the same, but you cannot pound life into the ground. Life will not stay still. Life is ever urging you forward. What joy that brings.

All right, are you now sold out on the idea of letting go of practicality for a little while and substituting it with something not expected of you? not even expected by yourself. That is what you are to do today — surprise yourself. What will it be?

You will do something wonderful today that makes your heart happy. Perhaps you will find crayons and draw a picture. Perhaps you will do a somersault. Perhaps you will surprise someone else. Surprise is the unexpected. Imagine what you can do today to add sparkle. Even thinking about it has value. One surprise leads to another.

Write down Surprise in your calendar today. Make it a part of your day. Surprise can never become routine. What surprise lies in store for you today? Call it to you.