Children of the universe

“Praise to you, O Father, for what you have hidden from the wise you have revealed to little children.” Luke 10:21.

“Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 18:3.

This is a tribute to our children who were born of the stars. The wisdom of children is simple, pure and cosmic.

As the adult in us turns away in resentment, the child in us seeks dialogue, wanting to talk and listen and learn. The child is imprisoned in the adult, but he is not helpless. He can break away when the adult is asleep.

Children build bridges to undiscovered people and places in order to discover. Children, by their nature, are obsessed with discovering. Adults destroy bridges to protect themselves from a cruel world. Adults are often overwhelmed by fear, whereas children are by nature courageous.

I saw a child building a sand castle on the beach. For a child, living for the moment is the same as living forever.

I saw a child sleeping in a hammock. For a child, there is no difference between dreams and reality.

On a remote shore, I told three kids to run on the beach towards the sun. They did not ask why. Children do not need to know where to go. They just keep going and only then will they know. That is why they are prone to discovery.

For a child, there is no distinction between now and forever. He seeks crowded places to learn from noisy people. He can fly. He soars alone to the stratosphere to dialogue silently with the sunset. He gazes at the rainforests and deserts below. He knows astral travel, the ability to go places at the mere thought of it.

I saw a child about to plunge a knife into an electric socket. I wanted to warn him, but changed my mind. For a child, curiosity kills only cats.

The farmer warned the boy not to piss on the electrified fence. He ignored the warning and got the shock of his life. He thanked the farmer for the thrill.

I saw two kids silently silhouetted against the bleacher seats, arms on each other. The secret to discovering yourself is in discovering others.

The child surveys the steep incline, ready to get the thrill of his life running downhill. His curiosity and adventurous spirit overwhelm his fears.

A child is clairvoyant. He can see clearly. In the blink of an eye, he sees what is invisible to adults. At the edge of a cliff, he sees the beautiful orange sunset beyond, not the dark bottomless pit below. His perspective is his power.

A child sees the universe reflected in a puddle after the sudden morning rain. He explores and discovers new places and people at will. His perspective transcends time and space.

A child knows nothing about the laws of adults. Lifting the skirt of a girl looking away to find out what is under, he feels guilty if he fails to try. And there is no malice in his action.

A naked child plasters his whole body with mommy’s tampons. He is a natural inventor and field researcher. He is intuitively innovative, not boxed in by rules made by adults. He is forever obsessed with experimentation.

A child takes a picture of a croc up close in a zoo with no bars preventing it. He does not see a predator because he knows he is not a prey. The croc respects his fearlessness. He simply seeks dialogue and a sharing of spirits, and the croc knows it.

A boy does pentel drawings on his sleeping dog, on his forehead and chest. For him, the only rule in art is there are no rules.

A girl on a swing is almost falling her head three inches from the ground. But she knows how to handle it. She cannot exist without motion, just like planets orbiting, comets hurtling, galaxies expanding. Motion is an obsession yielding harmony with the universe.

A child’s wisdom is experiential not theoretical, inherited from distant stars. They do not need classrooms but open fields.

View related photos = http://eastwindjournals.com/2018/08/08/children-of-the-universe-a-slide-show/