Remember a time, perhaps long ago, when the world seemed magical, that everything was possible, that we could be awestruck by a butterfly, and feel love for everyone around us? An innocence born of not-knowing, of naïveté, of a child’s mind? A simple world that those of us who have children got to share the wonder of our children discovering life as they marvelled at rocks, trees, rabbits, flowers, tall buildings, the ocean; all being discovered and experienced for the first time as they grew. They are beings of pure love.
Then we start to grow up, and somewhere, somehow, we begin to get too smart for those simple pleasures, as we are told that ‘happiness’ lies in our future, that sometimes we can’t trust our feelings, and that sometimes we should not say anything, even if it is true, and is obvious for everyone who sees it. And so we begin to drift away from our true identities, as we feel less and less, and think more and more. As we continue to grow up, our knowledge and sophistication increases, and some of the wondrous things we beheld before become just another view, object, animal, and we slowly become more and more numb to the world around us. Then we are stopped in our tracks by a beautiful sunset, a doe and her faun in our backyard, the simplicity of a picnic with our friends, and we remember those long-ago things that gave us such joy and that made our world so interesting.
Our state of unconsciousness may be contagious, and the environment we have created in our lives may foster staying that way. Not changing a thing even though we are sure that a change would be good for us is the path of surrender. Certainly unconsciousness is contagious , but so is awareness! If we only decide we want to end our life of surety and numbness, and feel once again, sometimes facing the unknown as we navigate this new direction, we can begin to affect the change, not only in our own lives, but in the world in which we live as well. This is an intelligence always present, an intelligence that causes our blood to flow, the earth to rotate, the sun to rise and set, and that happens without us needing to think, think, think. All we have to do is listen, look, and without judgement, take in what the world gives us.
Letting go of our expectations, and simply accepting what comes, doing with it as we need, and letting it go yet again. Resisting the urge to judge what comes and of our expectations of it can be so very difficult, coming from our thinking mind. Seeing things for what they are, and not, perhaps how they might affect us, is our portal to being able to live a life more innocent, kind, and full of discovery and wonder. Our return to innocence…