Save the Child

A few months ago I came accross a definition of an "adult" as the "child that did not survive".

It struck a cord with me and although cynical i saw the truth in it. The thought grew on me and i began to ponder on all the warm and wonderful attributes that we were born with but lost with the advent of time under the auspices of growing up. And the fearful fact is that every passing generation is losing the inner child earlier and earlier in life. Call it technology, call it lack of time or call it societal pressure; i see an army of beings that look like children but inside them is a mind, a brain and an emotional makeover that functions more akin to adults.

When the clock struck mid night and another year came to a close; the familiar calling of the inner self to make the next year more meaningful helped me joined the dots. Would it not be nice to to retrace the steps of my own development in search of the child that i lost at the expense of the adult that i became. What did i lose and when did i lose it. How can i cultivate those attributes and characteristics again. If i can just begin that journey and make some headway will that not trump (pun intended) any new year resolution.

Right away i reminisced that as a child everything appeared so large, the horizon so big, the clock that moved less fast, days that seemed longer and nights that disappeared as soon as we shut eye and drifted into the dreams that painted one day to the next. 

So what happened - why don't we have time anymore, why are we running against the clock from one task to another, why are we unable to sleep, why does the horizon appear narrower, people appear smaller, space appear constrained and ideas dwarfed by opinions. I want to be that child again, want to be free so that i can engage with people, nature and the world around me on the basis of a blank canvas and not a potpourri of polarized graffiti that the mind has become. 

I want to do less - i want whatever i do to be somehow connected to my purpose of being here, i want to cut out the noise of every distraction, i don't want to be everything to everyone - i want to be someone to me, i want to give oxygen to every new thought, a new idea no matter how unfamiliar and see some merit some positive in it. I want to reign in the aggression of opinion, the premature application of experience and i want to nurture the moments that matter.

I'm amazed that as a child we did this naturally. We were  not polarized and our penchant to try something new was limitless. Our basic instinct was to be happy and to smile. We did not care about the clothes we wore, we did not care about how dusty our feet were. We were learning more in a week that we can learn in a year now. 

I came to the conclusion that in order to return to being a child there are several things i will have to give up because these in the first place killed the child. I want to responsible for less number of things and accountable for more of the things i choose to be responsible for. 

I will have to redraw the circle of influence and cede control to every element outside it. People call out these things by different names - mindfulness, minimalism etc etc. But these are adult definitions and I'm convinced whereas all of them of elements of what is needed - the rebirth of your inner child will be a experience unique to each and every one of us.

Will keep sharing snippets from my journey from time to time.