62. To Be A Child

Do you remember what it feels like to be a child?

To wake up in the morning tingling and trembling with excitement because there is a whole new day to discover!

To be unafraid of the unknown. But to be so comforted by what is familiar.

To barely be able to contain oneself because life is just too important to sit still!

To wonder about things not from how they appear outside you but from how they feel inside you: a butterfly, a magical brook, a giant tree, a busy squirrel, a shadow or a breeze.

To be completely and utterly free!

To be making connections all the time: “Ah Ha! That goes with that. And that goes with that!”

To go into a troubled place, a place where people are sad or not themselves – and to wish for everything that is not them to simply go away!

To be afraid of things that you later realized made no sense at all.

To be comforted by a face, a story, a voice, a smell, a song, a picture, a word, a place… because those are your home and safety.

To actually, totally feel without a doubt or hesitation that the future is open and anything is possible!

To notice some people are not themselves at all, which makes you feel strange inside.

To have a whole cast of ever changing characters in your mind, some who you met in real life, some from books, some from movies…some who you want to be like.

To learn how to read and wonder about words – some make pictures, some make sounds, some make feelings, and some make no sense at all. But all of it is music to you, or makes you want to dance or play out stories.

To wonder about the other gender; why on earth do they act that way?

To wonder why you have to go to school ‘cause all this time you’ve been learning stuff just fine!

When you meet children…whether it is in your classroom or around your kitchen table…remember, reconnect with what it feels like to be a child. That is where arts integrated education begins!

~PAZ

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