This is an I-Heart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

Our next story comes to us from a listener, Paul Bauer, a regular contributor out of the

Great White North, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Here's Paul with a story about a very special Easter

day he had with his grandson. He's titled it, The Best Day Ever.

On an Easter Sunday morning, my grandson, Owen, got me thinking about what makes a day be a good day,

or more specifically, what makes a day be the best day ever.

Owen was at our house that Easter when he was about five years old.

He was outside in our backyard in the middle of his annual Easter egg hunt. As he was running back and forth all over the yard, finding the hidden treats and loading

up his Easter basket, he suddenly stopped in his tracks.

Owen looked up at me with his big brown eyes, showed me his overflowing basket, and blurted

out as loud as he could,

Papa, this is the best day ever! It was adorable, and his excitement in turn made that Easter

morning a pretty good day for me as well. After the Easter celebration was over, and Owen went

home for the night, I thought about those precious words Owen exclaimed, the best day ever! That's a pretty bold statement coming straight from his heart. Since Owen just had his best day ever, I began to wonder, what about me? What was my best day? I found myself having a hard time coming up with an answer. For some reason, I started recalling some of my bad

days. It seemed much easier to battle those off. The Christmas morning when I didn't get the new

pair of hockey skates I wanted, or the day I got teased and picked on in school for wearing hand-me-down

clothes. Why was I thinking of these rather than my good days? Then it hit me. I need to think like a child does.

The innocence and excitement children have can make any day be the best day ever.

With that mindset, it became easy for me to think of great days I've had.

I recalled my freshman year in college, a day that started out bad for me.

I just gotten cut from the college hockey team.

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