Like a little child

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You can learn a lot from children. You’ve heard it said no doubt, that to enter the kingdom of heaven you must become like a little child...

Well, you know, it’s actually true.

Thing is, this is rather difficult when you’ve gone through all the bother of growing up in the first place. You’ve bought into all the ideas about what life should be like, what success is.
Education, job, family, lots of likes on Facebook. Being #soblessed.

It’s hard work. You’ve put your back into it. You’ve got stuff to show for it.

Children are like little animals. Forces of nature.
It is not a positive thing though to say an adult is like an animal. So we try to civilise children, divorce them from their primal energy, and work on getting them to perform to external standards.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but kids don’t actually like ‘performing’. Like when Grandma or auntie comes round and you say: ‘Put on your nice dress’, ‘Why not play us that little tune you learned on the recorder?’, or you say ‘Come on, let’s hear a bit of the Spanish you’ve been learning’.
Ha, ha, ha....
What happens?
That’s right, they tell you, usually by the look in their eyes, to get lost.

On the other hand, a child is very spontaneous, and will do any of those things they can do as and when it pleases them, when the mood takes them.

But if we want to become like children, we need to start doing more of what children do.
​Start saying get lost when someone asks you to perform, and then use your energy to excel at something they never even dreamed of.

A child will say what they think because they haven’t yet learned that it’s not done to be truthful.

A child is innocent and trusting because they haven’t yet learned that the world is cynical of this.

A child is hopeful because they haven’t yet learned to manage their expectations.

A child is quick to point out an injustice and expects something to be done about it because they haven't learned that's not how the world works.

What would a child say about living the life you live right now?

If you actually try to ‘become like a little child’, you’ll come up very quickly against your own cynicism. What does that voice in your head say? Where did that feeling originate? Where did you learn that? Do you need to keep believing it?

If you stick with it for a bit, you’ll actually realise that innocence can be its own protection. Watch the people around you do a double take. Giggle. Try it some more.

Treat yourself with the same compassion as you would a little child and you’ll find yourself opening to life in a much richer way.