Return to innocence

Recently while going through her things, my mother-in-law came across a picture of my husband as a baby. It was a stamp sized picture in black and white but cute none the less. That evening when my husband returned from work I told him about it and he promptly asked me if I had seen the other picture. When I said no he immediately removed from the cupboard two large pictures framed in cardboard to show me.

One was the same as the stamp sized picture while I had cooed over in the afternoon. But the second one just took my heart away. It was that of a baby holding a red plastic ball and gurgling over it. What I forgot to mention was that the first picture had the baby pointing at something and smiling.

What struck me about the two pictures was that while in one the baby pointed at an object, a plastic ball, in the very next picture the baby was happily playing with the ball that had been the object of its attention. All it took to make it happy was a simple plastic ball. The picture always puts a smile on my face too.

We have all seen at one time or another how little it takes to make children happy. They find joy in the smallest of things. And yet as we grow up to be adults we forget this very basic of life - to take joy in the small things of life because that is what life is made up of – the small stuff.

What we require to is a return to innocence in this age of materialism and competition. We have to re-learn how to have fun. You will be surprised how young it will make you feel. Not only that, it will also help you at work - teach you how to think out-of-the-box.

Ever noticed how a child finds numerous uses for any given object?! As a child, I am sure you used a book not only to read but also as a pillow or a tent for your miniature toys and make belief games besides using the paper to make boats, planes or even money and paper bombs that actually go pop.

But a return to innocence does not just signify this. A movie I recently saw had 4 kids as the protagonists. 3 of the kids are very young and 1 in his teens. When they lose their parents in an accident their charge is given to the young man responsible for the same (as retribution). And while he makes all efforts to make the children feel comfortable and loved, the children - at first - find it difficult to come to terms with the change in their lives.

Yet as the movie progresses he is able to befriend the 3 younger children easier that the teen. They are more forgiving and open to LOVE than the teen who does not want to let go of his feeling of anger towards the young man.

This is so true for adults. As we grow older we prefer to hold on to our negative feeling more than the positive ones. We let fear, anger, hurt, revenge and one-upmanship rule our lives instead of LOVE, peace, joy, forgiveness and sharing.

When we re-learn these virtues (which are habits to us as children), will be able to lead fulfilled lives. When we live without fear, treat each day as an adventure from which we can learn to love life, people and what we do – it will be a true return to innocence.