When I first got this job to write this column I was sure I would not have any problem coming up with ideas to write about, after all writing comes so naturally to me most of the time, but the more I thought about it I got more and more nervous. "This is going to be read by a lot of people I don't know" so as I sat at my computer trying to rack my brain for ideas, my daughter played at the coffee table beside me. She is three and so smart that it scares me some days, now I know all parents say how smart their children are but my daughter is REALLY smart! So just for fun I asked her "Casslynn, what should mommy write a story about" she sat a moment and after a few excessive "hums and ahs" she proceeded to tell me "Monsters, blue ones with pink sparkles" of course! Why didn't I think about writing about blue monsters with pink sparkles?? Its such an easy topic! So I thanked her and turned to my computer and this is what I came up with.
Now, as hard as I tried I could not quite find a way to actually write about blue monsters with pink sparkles because contrary to popular belief there is not a lot of solid facts about these wonderful creatures. My daughter on the other hand could probably write an entire newspaper about them .She would write about what they ate that day, what they conversed about and how they swam in the rainbow river and ran through the meadow of cereal or whatever it is blue monsters with pink sparkles tend to do these days. Amazing isn't it? Wouldn't you love to be able to get inside the brain of a child and find out what it is that makes them click? What it is that fuels that vivid imagination?
It seems we all lose our own vivid imaginations with age, we lose that innocence as we experience life's many obstacles. A child can look at a butterfly and tell you a story about that butterfly's life without so much as skipping a beat where as if I had to write about a butterfly's life it would take excessive research and time and brainstorming and would probably end up something like "a butterfly's life cycle is about 6-8 weeks depending on the species, some species of butterflies can live up to a year as long as they are not eaten by other insects.." and so on, not very creative or intensely interesting unless you are of course into such things.
How I miss the days of innocence, I was raised by a hard working father as an only child and I remember being able to spend hours by myself making up things to do. My brain was stocked full of endless ideas, my imagination ran free, unblocked by any stresses (except for things like what color of crayon should I use to color this flower? And, I don't want to have a nap today) Back then life was simple, life hadn't put its mark on me yet. I was untouched by heartbreak or money worries or job stresses, untouched by the worlds many problems, I had not been beaten down by life's hammer like a stubborn nail that won't quite go into the board straight. I was free in a sense.
As we grow older, we begin to miss the small details of life, our minds always on something else, some stress or worry of some sort. We forget to stop and take in the details around us, we forget sometimes that there is more to life then work and stress. We forget about our innocence, about the simplicities of life. As adults we tend to believe that we need to teach our children about life, now as true as that statement may be I believe that children can teach us more about life then we can teach them. Their minds have not yet been infected by "the real world" a childs mind seems to be full of endless ideas and imaginings. Their innocence can remind us about the magic in the world. My daughter constantly stops me to look at certain things around me, things I would normally overlook. She will point out the color of the sunset and say things like "the sky is pink because the sun went to bed" she reminds me about the things in life that should matter more to me then they do.
If my daughter sees an injured critter her instant concern is very apparent, I am reminded of a time when I was told my daughter wanted to protect a dragonfly, she sat beside it at the pool after it had been rescued from its watery near death experience and she played with it, talked to it and became friends with this thing, but then another child came and, as some children tend to do decided this bug needed to be uh...squished. I was told that my daughter was terribly upset about the situation. Now, as an adult I don't see a dragonfly as my friend, they are creepy miniature helicopters with big eyes and if someone squished it I wouldn't think twice about it but children view everything around them as something very significant.
Also, children can teach us about our own hearts. As adults we tend to hide our feelings and our emotions afraid to show weakness in fear of being judged. A child shows their feelings all over their faces, we always know when they are happy or sad or mad, when an adult is sad some of us don' t like to cry for we believe we will be judged but a child will teach us that it is okay to feel, it is okay to get sad and cry. They are not afraid of judgment for they have never known it. They have no need to hide how they feel all the time, can you imagine the freedom of that? Not having to hide how we feel or who we are? If only we could be like children again, free to feel without the consciences that it may cause.
We all need to try and find our inner children. We all have one inside of us hiding behind the filing cabinets of adulthood. So, next time you go to do something whether it be inside or outside take a look at your surrounding, try and see all the wonders around you, put down the cell phone, turn off the TV or pull over to the side of the road and embrace life, let your imagination run wild, embrace the innocence hidden inside you, inside us all, let go of your worries and stress and just breathe, just for a moment, you are alive, the world is beautiful, life is beautiful. Smile, then carry on.
