The smallest humans among us are usually inundated with education from the moment they arrive in the world. We teach them how to eat and how to dress and how to act. We teach them so one day they can grow up and teach their kids the rights and wrongs of the world. But in all this teaching, we ignorantly think we are the only ones with anything to teach. These reminders force us to grow back down to our own childhoods, when we hadn’t yet been told all we were “supposed” to know.
It just so happens that children often have a few things to teach us as well:1. Imagination
The world gets smaller as we grow older. We stop seeing grocery carts as rocket ships and treehouses as castles. Home Depot slowly becomes a hardware store instead of a giant game of hide-and-seek. One day you realize clouds aren't fluffy pillows you can jump on like trampolines. Kids see the world as an adventure. When they play knights and dragons, they truly see their broomstick as a valiant steed. As we find more and more of our dreams to be disproven, we are discouraged from possibility and magic. Never let adult practicality outweigh a childlike sense of wonder. There is magic in the world, and somewhere along the way we forgot to acknowledge it.
2. Ask Questions
"Why?" they say, for the millionth time. "Why do you always take the same way home?" "Why is the sky blue?" "Why isn't it Christmas yet?" Kids never stop questioning the world around them. While this might be the epitome of annoying qualities, once you've been told to be quiet enough times, you stop asking. Children are a reminder to start questioning again -- why do you take the same way home every day?
3. Courage
Kids are free from humiliation and embarrassment. They dance when they want to dance, and love what they want to love, and will be whatever they want to be. They will never stop themselves. Children haven't learned failure yet, and they blindly charge into life like they are indestructible. This is such a limitless mentality, that becomes so crushed in adulthood. Childhood courage is still a part of us, however much growing up tried to teach it out of us.
4. Getting Dirty
One day after church, when my brother was just a toddler, we found him sitting in the middle of a mud puddle, clothes completely ruined, happy as can be. Kids climb trees and hop fences and roll around in the dirt. Every pair of pants has grass stains smeared into the knees. An important part of growing up is learning not to get dirty anymore. Don't ruin your clothes, don't step in mud, don't get chocolate cupcake all over your face. I suppose it's important that we keep these things in mind for the most part. But I hope that your inner child allows you to have at least one pair of pants with grass stains in the knees.
5. Blind Positivity
In the end, children are simply as resilient as anything. A skinned knee or a broken toy are catastrophic, but temporary. For a child, the sun will always rise again tomorrow. Meltdowns are lost with the day, and every morning is another beginning. Perhaps children are not faced with the complexity of adult problems. But if you look closer at your complex, adult problems, they truly are not any worse than skinned knees or broken toys. Meanwhile, no matter what the problem is, the sun will always rise again tomorrow.
