Oh to be a child again...

They say that we can learn much from our children and I’ve seen that recently.  Have you ever been with kids when they experience new things – every day of course for them – or when they’re really excited?  It can be a trip to the swimming baths, a scooter ride in the park they’ve been to a thousand times or even the film they’ve watched a million times before.  The whoops and hollers of joy that come from them always makes me smile.  When did we lose our wonder at the world?

It seems that as you grow up, maybe through teenage years or later things get ‘boring’ – everything seems old and bland – “same ole” we say.  Even when it’s new experiences we can down play the wonder and awe of the world around us.

My husband and I just came back from a trip to Venice and we had a great time – the smallest things seemed so reassuring – the rain (we’re so used to it) but there it just made it fun to see people up to their knees in water, kids jumping in puddles and grown-ups running around in knee high plastic bags – hilarious.  It made me stop and just remember what a great world we live in.

It can get so heavy – life – the illnesses, money problems, relationship strains and the sheer exhaustion of making sense of life sometimes – BUT what about taking a step back and look at what’s around you?  What are you grateful for today?  What seemingly small thing is actually a miracle – the child you waited so long for, a new house you’ve dreamed of, a successful venture, loyal friendship, a sunny moment in a dreary day and the feeling of life itself!

A friend of mine sent the following clip out in his newsletter this week and it made me cry with laughter – just the wonder of it and the vibrancy we can bring into others lives if we only remember that childlike wonder and awe of life.

Another aspect of being a child that I miss is the simplicity of it all.  Everything seems so straight forward to them.  If they like it they let you know and if they don’t – they let you know!  You very rarely have to guess what they’re feeling or prize some sentiments from them.  When did it all get so complicated?

You may have heard me talk about gremlins or saboteurs before – those things inside us that stop us moving forward – they say things like “you’ll never be able to do that”, “who are you to think that will work”, “no-one wants to be around you” and other such phrases – we all have them and they are very unique and personal to us.  I have one called ‘hard work’ – if something’s worth anything it has to feel like hard work – why make things easy when you could make it tremendously hard instead….so the impact of that is make things hard work – my business, my friendships, my family relationships, even watching TV (go figure) but my gremlin is very effective in binding me up so tight in my own restrictions that I can’t walk free to do things the easy way – why do things have to be hard?  What about them being simple?

So my quest for this fortnight is to recapture the wonder and simplicity of childhood – what form that will take I don’t know yet but watch this space.  How about you?  What could you do today to reconnect with your inner child…and make things simple!

Oh to be a child again