Wednesday 28 December 2011

Lessons from a three year old

We can learn so much from spending time with and listening to our young ones. Today I was playing in a bucket of slime with my three year old (hey, don't knock it till you've tried it) and he was making a cake. He piled some jelly like slime onto the plate, used a palate knife to smooth the edges and top. He took infinite care to make sure it was perfect, then, as he was just about to finish it....plop....he dropped the whole lot onto the ground. I watched and waited for the tantrum...how I underestimated him. He said, "oh..damn it." Then reached back behind him and took another handful of slime out of the bucket and started again.

How wonderful he is, how inspiring! Imagine if we, as adults, dealt with the world in the same way he does, or other children? Imagine if, as they were learning to walk, a child just went..."nope...too hard to change what I'm doing, I'm fine with crawling, I'll stick to that." Ever wonder why this doesn't happen?

We are born knowing the skills that we need to be the best us we can be and to fulfill all our dreams; living a life of beauty and successes. Try telling a child who is learning to walk that it is too hard and that they cannot possibly learn such a new skill...they'll ignore you and learn anyway because babies have no concept of the word failure...amazing!

Babies don't know what fear is until we teach it to them, they don't understand embarrassment, failure, giving up, too hard or anything like this! They don't use words to communicate their feelings, needs and wants and yet they are all met, so what do babies know that we don't?

The answer is that we know everything they know, we just choose not to use it, we "learn" certain "stuff" through further life experiences that tend to undermine the "stuff" we are born knowing...what a shame. Take the time to watch and interact with the young ones...they will teach us how to get back to the real us, the one's that do not understand the meaning of the word fear or failure!

With love and light
xoxoxoxoxo

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