Flashback

I wrote this a few years ago and have posted it on almost every blog I have ever started. So my dear hypothetical readers I hope you enjoy this.

Why do things change? Why does the innocence of childhood fade? Why can't everyone stay that way? Retain the wide eyed expression that the world is a wonderful place. Maybe then the world would be a wonderful place. Maybe then there wouldn't need to be childish innocence. Then the people who do maintain that innocence, who can actually see the world as the glorious place of wonder and adventure. Maybe they would live a better life. No more naive, no more called disabled for some reason or another. They would be seen for the gift that they possess. The gift to look at a summer day and see the heat waves as something beautiful, the way a child does when staring out a car window on a long drive. To walk outside and see the world around them as a place full of adventure. To see the trees as something other then scenory on the way to the mall. Or the place where the annoying bird likes to nest. To hear beauty in that birds song. To see the world the same way you did when you ran around as a child but now with the understanding eyes of an adult. Eyes that not only have the innocence for a day of play and adventure but understanding of time.
Being an adult. That seems to be the problem. The thing that causes so much change. When you go from spending a day in a tree fort, or in a tent of blankets on the living room floor. To having your life dictated by acceptable behavior. By dress codes, and deadlines. To no longer have it be acceptable to run around the yard barefoot sword fighting with a stick you picked up from a near by tree. To have forgotten how to enjoy the grass between your toes and the shifting of the dirt beneath your feet. . To have forgotten the fact that you only have a short amount of time to enjoy the wonder around you. To take the time to watch a catipillar crawl across a leaf becuase the colors a pretty or the movement amuses you.
Why must growing up involve losing so much that should be held dear? Why does it seem like the only acceptable way to return to that joy, is to have children of your own? To have an excuse to return to that state of innocence, that the heart longs. for.
Why must growing up involve losing so much?

As I said I wrote the above a few years ago but it still seems so true. I was walking with Lizz today and we were talking about the fact that it would be nice if you could take small vacations and go back to being 5. Go back to being able to run around the front yard. We were with her 4 year old niece and we walked by a house twice (once on the way to where we were going and again on the way back). Both times she paused to point out the pumpkins. Later we were in her brothers kitchen and this same niece had me and her dear auntie Lizz jumping up and down and quacking like ducks. I miss being that small and finding the joy in things like that and not feeling like a complete idiot for doing something like that.

So my dead hypothetical readers I end with this. Growing up sucks. Yes we must age and progress through our time on this earth. Yes we must gain some responsibility. My wish is that you also retain the ability to occasionally through caution to the wind and just act like a child again. If nothing else you'll get a smile and a laugh out of it and that is a treasure in itself.

With that I am off to...well do something I guess.

Jes