There’s a gumball machine at my workplace, one of the good old fashioned ones where each gumball just costs a quarter. Watching the glee on children’s faces as they clutch coins between their fingers and run towards it always makes me smile. The excitement of candy, the anticipation while trying to guess what color gumball will dispense, and the look of pure happiness as they pop the brightly-colored orbs into their mouths is always something that brings me joy.
We’re often all in a hurry to grow up that we forget the joys of childhood at times. Watching bubbles or dandelions that have been blown float on a breeze is something of days bygone. Singing Disney songs unabashedly at the top of our lungs after watching the latest movie is frowned upon for adults. Splashing in puddles and dancing in the rain, a childhood joy, just resonates differently when you’ve left that stage, at least for some
“Why can’t you grow up?” is something we often hear when we do these behaviors in adulthood, along with “I thought you’d have grown out of that by now!” Spoken harshly, these resonate in our minds, even years afterwards. I heard them growing up in relation to some of the self-soothing stims I have had (and actually still have), along with my love of unicorns and other silly things I did. I was told that when I bought Disney cartoon soundtrack CDs as a teenager and wanted a happy meal because I wanted the toy. I was looked at as childish because I didn’t fit the norm of what should be adultlike behavior.
Why do some try to browbeat the childhood out of us? Why is it considered so childish to enjoy the things that bring us joy, no matter what they are? Why is it that adulthood is perceived to be something that needs to be taken on with seriousness and that to be an adult means we must leave our childhood completely behind?
I’m still not serious, unless I have to be. I still love unicorns and have a handful of stuffed animals. I still sleep with a teddy bear and listen to my favorite kids’ songs on occasion. I still find the wonder I once had reading children’s fiction and fairy tales (and I find it even while writing them). And I still do a number of self-soothing regulations such as flapping my arms when I am excited, chewing on my tongue when bored, and picking at scabs at times.
Yet, there’s a certain joy that can only be found when one taps in to their inner child. There’s some peace in letting your hair down. Optimism in the form of brilliant hope can be found when one learns to rediscover the imagination of a child. And there is boundless opportunities for love when one finds that childlike spirit.
“The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.”
~ Aldous Huxley
Yesterday, it rained. While I had to work for part of the storms, it was still raining pretty hard when I came home from work. My other half didn’t even bat an eye as I changed my clothes, donning some jeans and my hiking shoes and throwing on my rain coat. I went outside and danced in the rain splashing in the puddles and even getting two of my magical little unicorn toys involved. I got soaked. But I enjoyed every minute of it.
There was magic in the moment, just as there is every time I blow some bubbles or make a wish on the seeds of a dandelion or on a falling star. There’s a certain optimism when I take a picture of my little toy unicorns or pen a word to a friend in a letter. There’s a certain joy when I sing a song from my childhood or eat a gummy bear or watch a child get a gumball from the machine at work.
And I know it brings a smile to other’s faces. That’s the magic I intend to create.
We may only be young once, but we can be childlike forever.
I’ll leave you with a quote to be food for thought from one of my favorite authors:
“I am still every age that I have been. Because I was once a child, I am always a child. Because I was once a searching adolescent, given to moods and ecstasies, these are still part of me, and always will be… This does not mean that I ought to be trapped or enclosed in any of these ages…the delayed adolescent, the childish adult, but that they are in me to be drawn on; to forget is a form of suicide… Far too many people misunderstand what putting away childish things means, and think that forgetting what it is like to think and feel and touch and smell and taste and see and hear like a three-year-old or a thirteen-year-old or a twenty-three-year-old means being grownup. When I’m with these people I, like the kids, feel that if this is what it means to be a grown-up, then I don’t ever want to be one. Instead of which, if I can retain a child’s awareness and joy, and be fifty-one, then I will really learn what it means to be grownup.”
~ Madeleine L’Engle
Stay magical, all. Find a way to tap into that inner child, if even for a moment.
Write your own story.
I know I will.
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K. S. Wood Writes 
I know what you are saying. I liked Peter Pan & never want to grow up. Even though I have.
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I’ve “grown up” too – but like Ogden Nash said, “You are only young once but you can stay immature indefinitely.” I know that immature has negative connotations, but I like to say that it means our childlike spirit never grows old.
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Well said, I would often hear, “when will you grow up,” as a child. In my teenage years, my response was “As I grow and learn.” This was between my Father and I. Now, my Mother was more in the mind set from the writer of your quote. “She would always telling me to stay young in my heart and soul.”
I was asked once by a nurse, while in the hospital, if you could pick an age to be, any age what would you pick. Now, I was only 12 when asked this question. Without even a moment pause. I said, “25”
My mother was right where and she had a smile on her face. The nurse said “25? Why would you pick that age?”
” Because , then I would be older, yet I can still be young!” To which she said ” that is surprising from a young lady, I thought you would pick a different age ”
After the nurse leaves the room. I asked my mom, “way were you smiling?” Because I knew you would surprise her. You my daughter have an old soul with a young spirit.”
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Beautiful.
My favorite response to the line “when will you act your age?” is this:
I don’t know how. I’ve never been this age before!
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One of the many fun things about raising my children was introducing them to the simple joys…and watching the amazement on their face when I played in the mud, splashed in the puddles, or asked them if they wanted to watch a kid’s show with me. Adulting is hard enough, we need to be able to have our simple pleasures, no matter what age ‘they’ say they’re appropriate for. (I recently discovered the joy that is Squishmallows…and I’m 53) Stay young at heart, stay magical, enjoy those simple pleasures, and tell those nay-sayers that they have cooties and that’s why they are such stick in the muds. 😉 💞
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Lol at the cooties part! But you are right, we need to be able to enjoy life in whatever way we want, as long as it is not detrimental to someone else’s well being.
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Amen!💞
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I enjoy childish things, and I can, because of my dissociative identity disorder diagnosis, I have inner kids, literally! Some of my alters/inside people are children!
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