R.A.D.I.C.A.L. Thoughts
“To play, to be amused, to enjoy the moment without judgments is to have access to the child within.” Robert Fulghum in Words I Wish I Wrote
I have just spent 10 whole days with four of my grandchildren. All children, whether related to us or not, can teach us incredible lessons about enjoying life. They are joking around and poking around and laughing and experimenting all the time. They want to wade in the ocean and feel it on their skin instead of holding back because it’s too cold or might get their pants wet. They are unbelievably honest, but they try to spare your feelings. (My grandchildren told everyone about my missing a step down in the darkness into a Japanese room and taking down a sliding paper wall in the process – luckily it could easily be put back on it’s track! But they didn’t make me feel like a totally incompetent, sludge of a person. Probably because in their short lives they realized they had knocked over a few things on their own!) The words above in Fulghum’s book were referring to Eric Bernes, the father of Transactional Analysis. He insisted that this “open-eyed (playful – child-like) attitude is essential for creativity, the functioning of imagination, the appreciation of beauty, the perception of art and music and poetry, and the expression of sheer joy.” Wherever we go today, try to spend time with or watch children and see how they react to life. They are much more bold and carefree than we are and they laugh a lot. If they are upset about something, you know about it … they cry or stick out their tongue. But then they get over it and move ahead to a new adventure. Let’s try just today to see life with the simplicity and the full-throttle joy of a child. Discover something new. Experiment. If you screw up, get over it. Quit worrying so much and just get completely involved in the moment. It is an incredibly liberating and fun and invigorating way to live!
“Mark this: Unless you accept God’s Kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you’ll never get in.” Mark 10:15 (The Message)
