Childhood Joy

“Too many people grow up. That’s the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don’t remember what it’s like to be 12 years old. They patronize, they treat children as inferiors. Well I won’t do that.”

Walt Disney.

Do you remember the magical moments of childhood, the times when you were just beginning to learn how the world works, and your laughter filled the air because even when times were tough, your folks didn’t let you in on it? You are very fortunate then.

Some of us lost those magical moments when we were way too young. So we can hardly remember being in a time when nothing mattered except the present; the games, the lessons, the laughter, some tears as we faced the physics of the universe. Lost in a struggle for survival when that struggle should have been on someone else’s shoulders.

I woke up about two or three years ago and realized what a quandary I was in. Here I was trying so hard to be alive, but trapped by the past, and pain, both physical and emotional, that I hardly enjoyed the life that I had.

And so I decided to revisit my childhood. I vowed to enjoy what life I had in spite of any pain I had to face. To watch children discover the world and bask in the joy of learning with them. To watch a kitten play and laugh at its antics. To relearn the joys of reading picture books, by working on them as they were being developed. To stop, suspended in time, lost in a childlike thought, mischief, pure love, curiosity, and endless mystery around us.

So here I am, 12 going on 28, happy to be alive, to love and to be loved, happy in being me, happy in letting everyone be whoever they want to be.

©Juliet Maruru 2009 www.jmaruru.wordpress.com