Embrace your childishness

When things get difficult, we lose some faith in the positive outcomes of situations; we lose trust in what is to come. 

I was running some errands today, and I found myself in a store that had a very kind service clerk, he brought light to a day that was gloomy and found peace in working at a store that is underground still trying to make other people’s day get better. As I was walking back, I found myself walking under the rain and came across several puddles so that I avoided getting wet. This led me to look around at people’s faces, seeing their stressed and rushed figures walking past me, going about their day. I started to question or think about how we lose sight of life as we go about our day, constantly fulfilling tasks, or killing time when we do have that spare time to do whatever we want. We get to the point where the time we do have to enjoy, we have turned to the things that take away from the joys and beauties that life has to offer; turning to this new reality that we have been immersed in and becoming digitalized rather than grounded. As simple as jumping or walking in a puddle as we did when we were younger to bring some joy even if it means getting wet and ruining what we have perfectly put together, we rather avoid bringing joy to our lives by taking some risks for the sake of maintaining the perfect image and carrying our figure with pride. But why or how did we lose this sense of risk or adventure, knowing that it will put a smile on our face and have become consumed with walking around in this adult-like mature form? Can it be that the sense of childishness has been put in the back of our minds when we grow older? Why is it that we relate being an adult to having a perfectly seeming lifestyle rather than embracing the curiosity and adventuresome activities that spark up life’s pleasures?  

We stop allowing ourselves to be free and become constricted to this cycle or path that others are following so we don’t feel left behind. But why don’t we give ourselves a chance to jump into that puddle again? Why do we care so much about this perfect lifestyle and look? I think that we have come to believe that the way to live life is focused on the constant achievements that we see materialize rather than looking at the rewards that we get when we choose to simply be. We have grown up in a society to care too much about things that are not even ours so that we can connect the value of our life with the possessions we own. Maybe we place so much value on those materialistic things that we start to trust more on only focusing on the competitive world we live in thinking that we always have to be a certain way by completing or achieving the most amount of things throughout the day. Yet, we must also take a step back to understand that this trust in those physical valuables that make us feel whole does not make us who we are. What if we were to take away those luxuries in life, would we still be able to feel fulfilled with who we are? Would we be able to trust ourselves enough to go about our days without depending on luxuries to feel fulfilled? Maybe we have to turn that sense of trust inward and find that fulfilment within ourselves, rather than continuously finding ways to monetize our being with materialistic objects to fill up voids that have only been created to feel that we are ahead in life (which we compare with others). 

So, maybe it is time to care a bit less about fitting this perfect image without messing it up or even failing at something, and take that risk and have a bit more trust that the adventures and anecdotes we create during our day-to-day activities and interactions will fulfill us more. Give yourself a chance to trust yourself, knowing that if you fuk up, be like a kid who falls off a bike and still gets back on until they learn how to do it. Trust that the steps that you are taking are allowing you to know that you are also capable of doing it.

Z.