The other day an old high school acquaintance reminded me that we're not kids anymore. It happened earlier in the day, before my brain was in overdrive, so it actually stuck with me a little longer.
Longer as in 40-something hours later I'm blogging about it because I've been thinking about it since then. Come to think of it, if I'm going to remember stuff like this in the morning, I should probably do more during those early hours. Do things I need to remember - learn a language, perhaps. Go the the grocery store. I cou
She meant it in that "we can't always get 8 hours of sleep" way, since I'd been complaining about waking up after just 5 1/2 hours of sleep, feeling wide awake, but wanting to sleep until my alarm went off at 6:30. While I still think I do better with between 7 1/2 and 8 hours every night....I get that this can't always be the reality.
But it made me think -- what if we left behind something important when we grew up? What if focusing on not being kids and instead on being adults made us lose something along the way? What if we left it back there and it would make us better today, if we could just go back and pick it up and reintegrate it (while still keeping our driver's licenses, etc..)?
I spent some time with my Goddaughter today, who is 7. She had some friends over and they were playing, and I saw how much of how she moves through her world is magical. It's different, when she's playing with peers.....how I can see how she interacts, reacts, and so on. She made me realize:
We should lean into our next moments (and the moments after that) with enthusiasm and joy. Feel the excitement of moving there, to let go of the fears of the future, and be thrilled to move into what is next.
Forget wearing emotions on your sleeve - how about leaving it where it is and showing it in who you are, WHEN you are? What about experiencing an emotion, really having it and validating it and feeling it? It's not a terrible thing to be sad or mad or jealous....what's terrible is not being honest with ourselves about why we feel that way, attending to the source of the feeling, owning where we are and allowing ourselves to move on. We could all be more honest, with ourselves and others, about how we feel. It would actually help others be more authentically themselves with us, when we're authentic with them. Kids, when they're in the middle of an emotion, they'll feel the heck out of it...let it run its cycle...and move on.
Don't just be honest about emotions, but also about opinions, personal truths, impressions, and so on.
We need to play like crazy. Nothing was ever invented by someone who half-assed something. That may not actually be true I guess....maybe the Snuggie was intended to be a big, cheap fleece dress but the inventor was just too tired to put the back on. No matter, when we love what we do, we do better at it.
We need to sleep when we're tired, and sleep until we're satisfied. Maybe if our heads are clearer, we could drop some of the stuffiness surrounding adulthood and just be more authentic, and happy, and living in the NOW.
Speaking of sleep....
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