Like
puppies or lion cubs or dolphins spinning silver lariats of bubbles, children
play for the joy of playing. Young children are masters of imagination, since
they know the magic of making things up. Our first and best teacher of
conscious living is our inner child.
But that inner child may have gone into
hiding, under a glass dome or in a room in Grandma’s house, because of shame or
abuse, ridicule or loneliness, because the world wasn’t safe or it wasn’t fun.
If we have lost our dreams, if our imagination is stuck in a groove, it’s
because we have lost our inner child. To live as active dreamers in everyday
life, we have to bring that child home. This requires a quest, a negotiation,
and fulfillment of a promise.
The quest will lead us down halls of
memory to a place and time where our wonder child went missing. We can embark
on the quest as a guided journey to a real place in the imaginal realm, or
through the portal of a dream or memory from childhood.
The negotiation requires us to convince
our child selves that we are safe and we are fun to be around. Fulfilling the
promises we make will require us to remember to play without scheduling it.
Play first, work later, our child selves will insist. The cautious dutiful adult self will protest. But if we are to keep our inner children at home in our bodies and our lives, we’ll need to fulfill our promises to be fun as well as safe. If we play well enough, then before we quite know it, we’ll fall in love with our work because it will be our play.
Play first, work later, our child selves will insist. The cautious dutiful adult self will protest. But if we are to keep our inner children at home in our bodies and our lives, we’ll need to fulfill our promises to be fun as well as safe. If we play well enough, then before we quite know it, we’ll fall in love with our work because it will be our play.
Art: "Bathers" by George William Russell (AE).
I like what i am reading. well Said!
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