When do we stop being children? Is there a generic line we all cross – a number, like eighteen, that suddenly defines every kind of person as an adult? Well, yes, I suppose – but at this point, can anyone really argue that we all magically just… become adults?
Okay, so where am I going with this?
Well, today I was wandering – slowly making my way to my morning class – when a thought hit me. Why are we kids? I mean – What is the purpose of being a kid? You never gain anything – you’re not making money, you’re not passing exams, you’re not –
Wait…what a horrible thought! And then that’s when I began to have another thought – when did I begin looking at life in a fashion that assigns deservedness only to those things that serve a direct purpose and provide us with a direct, beneficial outcome? What happened to living for the beauty around us… to being enamored by all that nature, and by what we, as members of nature can produce?
Thousands of years of art, hundreds of species of flora and fauna, a whole world blossoming with vibrant beauty – all of this free for us to explore. But instead, we sit there… and whine about nothing good in life ever coming free.
So that’s why, right then and there, I made a pledge to myself to start living life like a kid again. And I don’t mean throwing away responsibility and higher learning and whatever else comes along with growing older – not by any means. I’m talking more in the sense of how I look at, no, experience life.
You see – (and I hope maybe like me, this is the point you are flooded with all those wondrous flashbacks) - as I child, life was not a job, but a game. Instead of pondering my next task, my next move to get ahead, roll in the dough (sorry), I was wondering what adventure lay around the corner.
Running through the forest, playing in the mud under the trampoline, trekking through the desert, pawing through the creek in search of shark teeth.
Wide-eyed, eyes glistening with excitement as I gazed up up up at the tallest waterslides, the highest towers at Disneyland.
Sifting through the sand box, preparing the most glorious mud pie you would ever bear witness to. Hide and seek, ring around the rosy, tag. Crafting, running, playing, sailing, flying, leapinggg –
Until I reached the moon, because the sky had no limits.
------
Where did it all go?
But that’s the thing… it didn’t. It’s still in you, darling. Yes, you may have to dig. But I promise, you won’t regret it once you’ve found it. When I was a child, I lived life without a thought about why or what or how. I didn’t need a plan for every moment, a reason for every course of action. And of course, with age, comes responsibility. But maybe now, we can at least try to approach, no wait, experience life differently... at least give it a shot.
So-
The next time you step outside in your rush to work, or that morning class, take a moment to pause, and really look around – you’d be amazed at what you see.
