As a child, I know that I was always in a hurry to grow up, as I think most kids are. We all think that grown-ups have it made because they get to make all of their own decisions like what to eat and when to go to bed. I was that frustrated kid who always asked why and wanted to break away from the confines and simplicity of just going to school. I wanted to be out in the big wide world, to have a job and to make the decisions that all grown-ups GOT to make. Life was just too simple to be interesting to me.
Now turn roughly 500 pages on the calendar, months not days, and here I am in the thick of all that I wanted for the years of my youth. Only now I have discovered what I didn’t know as a child…simple is underrated and underappreciated!
Of course, a child has no concept of what is really going on in the adult world. And I had no clue what I was wishing for all of those years. AND, I would never go back to being a kid again. But it has taken me a lot of years to discover that simple really is its own kind of beauty. And that some of the most simple things in this world also hold the greatest pleasures.
The smile of your child as he or she drifts off to sleep in your arms, the feel of a warm ray of sunlight on your cheek, that feeling when your hand just melts together with the hand of your soulmate like they are only complete when they are together. All of these are simple moments that cost nothing but hold more value than any THING in this world.
These thoughts came to mind today when I read the following quote from Dr. Seuss, “BE WHO YOU ARE AND SAY WHAT YOU FEEL, BECAUSE THOSE WHO MIND DON’T MATTER AND THOSE WHO MATTER DON’T MIND.”
And at that moment it occurred to me that all of the really important things in this life can be summed up in words that are simple enough for a child to understand. Things like The Golden Rule, sharing, respecting others are all so simple and yet so important to a life of happiness. And yet it has taken me many, many decades to learn that what I thought I wanted to get away from as a child, was really the exact thing that I needed to hold onto forever.
A beautiful lesson in life. Yes, simple is good. We can get tangled up in the complex until we don’t know which end is up. But simple we can understand and live with. For some reason, there has never been a time in my life when I wished to be any other age. Maybe that was because, as a child, I never really knew what I wanted to be or do when I did grow up. I was never encouraged towards any direction. I went to school and got good grades, but never really enjoyed it. What I did often wasn’t good enough for my mother, so I think I stopped trying to do better. I don’t think I started to truly live until I grew up and started to work. Of course, when I became a Christian everything changed for me and that was a wonderful time. I look back from time to time, but would not go back for anything. Of course there are things I wish were different, things I wish had been different, but I cannot change those things so I must be at peace with them.
I think we all look back from time to time and wish things could have been different. But it is that point when you make peace with your past that is so freeing and such a blessing. You found the love and approval you so desired as a child in your faith and it has shaped you into the person that you are today. Your kindness and genuine concern for others are such a beautiful example of how we can bring love and happiness into our own lives by sharing it with others. Love is one of those amazing things that increases the more that you give rather than becoming depleted. Thank you Diane for all that you bring to this world and our tiny community here at See The Good!
Kathy, your last post, which I also loved, was a profound statement. This post is a profound essay in less than 500 words!!!! Yesterday was such a full day for me I never had a chance to read this until now. I am stunned. Did I tell you I’m taking a six-week Conscious Aging e-course with the Institute of Noetic Sciences with 32 other women and men from around the world, all learning from each other what it means to grow older without growing old. Your profound wisdom here is ‘just what the doctor ordered’. to help me get through my current ‘challenges’ which are here to teach me more invaluable life lessons. Your posts are also the ‘best medicine in the world’ for folks I’m getting to know in this e-class. I shall share this with my “classmates” so they can see the value of our Golden Years, the time of life when we return to the wisdom and compassion of the “simple things” such as the Golden Rule and kindness, caring and respect for self and others. We must not waste them feeling sorry for ourselves. This to me is the only tragedy of older age. Bless you for being such a gifted writer with such profound insight and a big, big heart. xxxxoooo