|
Today's
Meditation:
I love
Margaret's line here because I truly believe that growing
up is greatly overrated. There are some positive sides
to it, of course, but all in all there seems to be much
more lost when we grow up than there is gained, especially
when we consider the things that make life magical and
special and amazing.
As I grew up, my sense of wonder diminished
considerably. I looked at things with a jaded eye,
not with an innocent eye, and I started to judge things
that I hadn't felt a need to judge before. I also
stopped being excited by things as much as I had been
excited when I was a kid. When I get excited by
something, my spirits rise and my heart soars, and I see
the world in very positive ways. But that stopped
happening as much.
Relationships got complicated, mostly because I started
expecting more out of people than I had before. Of
course, I had to learn how to work and then get a job--in
my case, it meant many years of college, where they taught
me basically how to over-think everything and then share
my over-thought "wisdom" with others who also
tended to think too much. I had to say good-bye to
simplicity and innocence if I wanted to "make
it" in the world on adult terms.
Pablo Picasso said something to the effect that it takes
many years to become a child once more. Being a
child-like adult does not mean being a childish
adult. I admire Margaret's words because she's able
and willing to admit to something that most adults would
never even think of, and that most adults would consider
an insult if the statement were directed at them:
that she's still like a child in many, many ways. So
am I, finally, and I'm very grateful of that fact.
My child-like moments are by far my most enjoyable and
fulfilling--that is, as long as I don't care what other
adults say about them. And I don't. I'm just
being me, and I have every right in the world to be me,
just as I am.
|
