"What If We Never Grew Up?"

What if we forever remained as children? Wouldn't that be wonderful? Children have no concept of the passing of the years. Their innocence allows them to live in the moment, taking each one of those moments and making the most of it. They wake up each day with a new sense of wonder at the possibilities the day may bring. The only thing that keeps them in bed is sleep and once their bodies are re-energized their minds start exploring these possibilities.

Here's something I read the other day in a book called the 8th Habit by Stephen Covey. I suspect it's one of those bits of wisdom that has been built over time from various sources since he stated that he found it somewhere himself. Anyway, it goes like this.

"Between stimulus and response there is a space.
In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.
In those choices lie our growth and our happiness"

He goes on to say that everyone space is different and that those who have been raised with unconditional love in supportive circumstances may have a very large space....and vice versa, that some people may have a very small space due to genetic or environmental influences.

But note that he is talking about adults. To take his theory a little further I suggest that kids don't start out with any space at all. That's why they're able to enjoy every moment. They simply do what gratifies them at the moment within the limits of what some silly adult allows them. As children we are prevented from acting without thought. Don't eat all that candy! Don't climb out on that branch! No you can't have that, it costs too much money!

But there-in lies the problem of never growing up. I think that growing up is a process in which we are expected to widen the gap between stimulus and response. As we become adults society expects us to be responsible for our actions....our responses to stimuli. And furthermore as we becoem adults we also want the freedom to make our own choices. But if we gain that freedom and yet never grow up we end up continuing to make the spontaneous, and often irrational decisions of a child. Decisions that may seem like a great idea at the time don't seem so smart when we end up with a communicable disease, or owning a puppy that eats the rent money!

So I think I'm gonna try to grow up before I do something stupid!

"I've heard that it's possible to grow up - I've just never met anyone who's actually done it."---Meredith Grey

"When you live in reaction, you give your power away. Then you get to experience what you gave your power to."---N. Smith

"Peter: Forget them, Wendy. Forget them all. Come with me where you'll never, never have to worry about grown up things again.
Wendy: Never is an awfully long time."---J M Barrie from Peter Pan

...and this little ditty just because I like it...

“When I am grown to man's estate
I shall be very proud and great.
And tell the other girls and boys
Not to meddle with my toys.”
---Robert Louis Stevenson

love
peter