A friend of mine sent out a picture of his toddler doing just that the other day, and that was the caption below it. I thought, “I have those kinds of days, but only in my head.”
That reminded me of one of my pet peeves. Why do children get to do things that adults would never dare to do? I want to jump in puddles! I want to make mud pies! I want to go down a slip n’ slide! I want to blow bubbles in my milk! I want to have a tree house!
My mother used to adore merry-go-rounds. I still have an image of her in my head, riding on one in her early 40’s, sitting stiffly upright but looking absolutely delighted. At the time I was so young that I didn’t realize how special that was. It takes a lot for an adult to do something like that. Why is that?
Some people have children or grandchildren and can use them as an excuse to let their inner child come out to play. But for those of us who have no children, or whose children have all grown up, I feel it’s important to remind oneself to remain playful. That’s what I loved about the Cosby Show. Now there was a couple that remained playful with each other. I want to have a relationship, heck, I want to have a life like that.
Somewhere along the line most of us become more reserved. It sneaks up on us gradually. One day we look up and realize we’re no longer someone who gets into snowball fights or does Chinese Fire Drill at stoplights. And that is most definitely our loss.
In college at the dances, a friend of mine used to link hands with me and we’d spin in circles. It was so liberating! Just 3 or 4 short years later I visited her on campus. She now worked there. We happened to find ourselves at a dance and I wanted to spin, for old time’s sake. She wouldn’t, or couldn’t, do it. As a staff member, she had an image to uphold. That made me profoundly sad.
But we don’t have to walk that path if we don’t want to. We can still be responsible adults while tossing the occasional water balloon. So your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to find yourself a puddle and jump in it. I won’t tell.
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