I'm going to make this one short, sweet and light.
When was the last time you felt like a kid?
Remember that feeling? It's liberating! Everything around you is exciting and new, you don't care what others think, you want to do everything all at once, and leap into life and explore. You're full of curiousity, you laugh so easily, your smile reaches your eyes, and you feel light and full of energy.
No wonder kids are so happy. They're uncomplicated - it's almost as if they, at that tender age, realise how precious and fleeting life is, and how important it is to just let go of your crap and make the most of every moment. Maybe over time we forget that fact.
Today, I took a walk to the lake with my little brother. On the way back, we saw a round-ish fat stick on the ground, and my brother started kicking at it. Soon enough, we were playing soccer on the street, using the roundabouts as goalposts. It was such an awesome moment, yet so simple - the sun was hot, everything around us was bright, disapproving adults glanced at us, and we could feel the searing ground burn through our rubber flip-flops.
It got me thinking - when was the last time I felt like that, like a kid? Hmm, maybe a couple of weeks ago, when it started pouring down with rain and I decided to run out and get totally and utterly drenched.
Those moments, so seemingly insignificant, are, I realise now, the true essence of what it means to be alive - to hold on to that childish innocence, to throw caution and reason to the wind and just experience a moment in time to the fullest....to stop caring that the world is watching and just be free.
So I've decided - I need to indulge the kid in me a bit more. Like, every day. I've decided I'm going to do something every day that reconnects me with the glory of childhood. Because let's face it - we all want to be kids again...or even if we don't, we want what childhood represents.
You know what I think is sad? It's sad that we always knew how to live with zest and fun when we were kids, but as we get older, we let that go. We say things like - "Man things were so much easier when we were kids". Well maybe it wasn't 'things' that were easier - maybe WE were just a lot less complicated back then? Maybe things have always been simple, and we just complexify them ? (yes I know, not a real word)
Everyone tells us to 'grow up' - fine, I will - I'll face up to my responsibilities, I'll make money and support myself, I'll be independent, I'll set goals for myself and work with discipline to achieve them. But don't tell me to 'outgrow' the kid I was...and am.
Because it's kids who teach us to DREAM and never let anyone stop you; they teach us to laugh from our bellies, share our love with open arms, be in awe of the little things, never hold grudges, and be ourselves no matter how crazy we are.
I wonder if, as we progress through this path of 'self-development', we will come full circle and become that kid again? I'm starting to think so, because as each day passes, I feel younger.
So that's my next little experiment - to let myself be a kid again, at least every so often.
Give it a shot - what are some of the things you used to love doing? Painting with your bare hands? Devouring an ice-block on a hot summer day as it drips over your sticky fingers? Racing a friend to the end of the street, just because you can?
Just do it - whatever, this is the stuff that counts in the end, the little moments you'll remember. Let them look! Go on, be a kid. Reconnect.
And as always, tell me how it goes!
Til next time,
Peace & Love,
A.
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