As this very odd school year ends, I invite you to be a friend of a child or a group of children. Talk with them, or better still, listen to their questions, their observations about life. Get down on the grass beside a child, if you can. And peer into the eyes of a ladybug. You’ll never see it again the same way.
Too often, we organize children’s lives to an adult degree: sports uniforms, rules of play and the dressing down when a child has let down a success-oriented parent. Too much, too soon.
Play with children. Sing to them. Be silly together. Learn to be a child all over again. Don’t forget how much Jesus loved children. Don’t keep them away, he cautioned his disciples, for to such as these belong the kingdom of God.
Maybe if we recaptured our childlike qualities, we might find God and life so much more appealing, but let’s face it, other adults encourage us to subdue our childlike qualities.
We would characterize successful adults in our society as responsible, busy, serious, goal-directed, savvy, efficient, self-controlled, prompt, hard-working, capable and reliable. All good qualities.
In order to become people who bear all or most of these qualities, we have to abdicate the characteristics of children: play, risk, tearfulness, impulsiveness, secret places, burst of anger, humor and awe, curiosity, fantasy, candor, spontaneity, silliness, mischief, being adventuresome and an explorer.
Surely to become responsible adults, we have to control some of these qualities, but when we over-control or eliminate them, we run the risk of being depressed, harried, insomniac, martyrs on the altar of our own making. We get burned out, over-scheduled and give in to eating or drinking too much.
If we have become this classic adult, but still feel empty, wondering: “What is life all about, God?” then maybe this summer we need to accept a challenge from God. After all, God created the universe and life as a playful act. Reread Genesis 1 with this in mind or take a cue from Lady Wisdom talking about being with the Creator playing of the surface of the earth, playing before the Creator all the while, finding delight in the children of earth.
To do any of these things you may have to join the anonymous author of this daunting piece:
“I am hereby officially tending my resignation as an adult, and I have decided I would like to accept the responsibilities of an eight year old…I want to lie under an oak tree and run a lemonade stand with my friends on a summer day. I want to return to a time when life is simple…All you knew was to be happy because you were blissfully unaware of the things that should make you worried or upset. That everyone is honest and good. I want to believe that anything is possible…So here’s my checkbook and my car keys, my credit card bills and my 401K statements. I am officially resigning from adulthood. And if you want to discuss it further, you’ll have to catch me first, because...Tag! You’re it.”
I hope you had a laugh over this article. It’s not the way we usually look at life. It’s not what I usually write about. But in its own way, being childlike is a gift and a blessing. It is a choice to savor. It may be difficult to allow playfulness to creep into a life which had successfully stifled it. But taste it and see.
~Sister Joan Sobala
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