It's up to us

We are complicated creatures, aren't we?

Am I wrong to wish we weren't so complicated? I think some of us have a tendency to over-analyse and over-complicate, especially when we delve into the complexities of our past. I think we should remember when we're looking through children's eyes that possibly their thinking is a lot less complicated. Love, confidence and fun are three elements that contribute to happy children. Children are not born with the uneasy feeling that they don't have the right to take too much of any of these.

So if we know this we should take advantage of it and try to extend this feeling of freedom and embodiment of love, confidence and fun for as many years as possible. Maybe with an environment that supports these elements children can grow up to be adults who are still living this way. Adults like this do exist. This is the way to live. Life could be easy most of the time if we don't go looking for limits or disaster.

So what if we never told children that love has conditions? What if we didn't erode their confidence by comparing them, by holding them to unrealistic expectations, by misunderstanding their thought processes and relatively uncomplicated feelings? What if we didn't tell them that life is hard and fun is a luxury?

If we believed love had no conditions we would be giving and receiving it freely. If we had confidence we would believe we could do anything. We wouldn't stop before jumping, we would just jump. We would be secure in knowing and trusting our strengths and feelings. If we believed we were allowed to have fun we would let ourselves enjoy the moment.

We don't want children to be plagued by our limits or neuroses do we? We could make a little difference in their lives just by being more aware of what we're modelling, what we're saying and what we're thinking. Everything we do and say is contributing to who they will become. It's a huge responsibility, but it's a huge honour.