Childhood Innocence
Over the last weekend, I paid my bosom friend a visit. I decided to go with my 8-year old son and my 2-year old daughter so their mom could get some alone-time to herself. Also, my son had been longing to see his friends - my friend's children; and it was a good opportunity to grant his wish to spend time with his friends. We got there and while I spent a bit of time catching up with my guy, my little ones were having fun with their buddies till it was time to go.
As we got back into the car to leave, my son told me how he inadvertently caught the password to his friends' tablet and he immediately let them know he had seen their password. What touched me though, was when he said he made a promise to them to never reveal the password to anyone. After he had finished giving me the gist about all the games they played, I asked him "so what was the password you saw?" You guessed right what his response was. He was firm when he said "I'm not going to tell you dad, I made a promise and I intend to keep it". I also did not push further because I needed to reinforce his position. I gave him a hi-five and told him how proud I was of his decision and discipline.
It may not seem much but when I look at children, their innocence and their honesty, it makes me wonder how much simpler the world would be if we all didn't lose all of our childhood innocence. Their openness to loving and being loved, their playfulness, their innate humour and their allround simplicity is something for us adults to learn from. Many times we over-complicate life for ourselves with some of the decisions we make, the beliefs we adopt and the way we allow life to drive us. We rarely have the time to pause because life is constantly teaching us that there is no time to just ‘be’ and enjoy the moment. We are constantly on the move.
Children do not try to take control of everything. They just want one thing at a time and they focus all their attention on it. One way to make life complicated is to try to gain control of everything around us. Sometimes, things will not work the way we want them to, we just have to have the calmness to accept and move on with life. Children live their lives to learn, always mimicking what or who they want to be like. They never hold back when they see something they like…whether or not you think they are being sincere. While we may not live in that world anymore, frequent visits to that world of seemingly endless possibilities can work wonders in how we think and how we see the world around us. Sharing a smile and being kind can change someone's day and make it better. You can be a source of positive energy in your neighborhood or workplace community.
No matter where in the world you are reading this from, life is a huge challenge to go through as an adult. But no matter how light or weighty your responsibilities are, we can always decide to choose happiness. Smile more often, say hello to strangers, tap your foot and nod your head along to a sweet melody you hear over the radio, share some kindness with someone you may never meet again. We may not have control over everything that happens to us, but we surely can control how we react to the things that happen to us. It may be a struggle for us to come back from some of the experiences we have had in the past, and may be near impossible to unsee and unlearn some of the things we have seen and learned, it does not mean we cannot try to be like children again and relive our childlike emotions and moments of pure, undiluted happiness.
In the words of a friend whom I admire so much, “it's ok to share a smile with everyone you meet because life already is a tough cookie, adding meanness to it is an overkill”.
V