May 11
  
 
As long as I hear "normal"
people telling me I am too
childish, I know I'm
doing just fine.

Wayne Dyer

  

Today's Meditation:

For the longest time, I never really thought to stop and figure out just what the term "normal" meant to me when thinking of other people and myself.  It's such an easy word to use, and we generally throw it around pretty carelessly using it to mean something to the extent of "doing things just the same way that most other people do them."  The problem I had with that was in looking around and seeing that so many people who were "normal" by that definition weren't all that happy-- they were often frustrated and unfulfilled and unhappy.

I came to find that people often call other people childish simply because they weren't doing things that made them "normal."  They were having too much fun, it seemed, and the others had to chastise them. . . why?  Because they wished they were having as much fun as the others?  Or because they thought they were doing those childish people a favor by trying to guilt-trip them into doing things in the same ways that everyone else does them?

Wayne has the right idea.  First of all, don't let others judge you on the basis of criteria you haven't approved of.  If you feel like blowing bubbles or skipping rope or singing out loud, then it's your choice whether to do those things-- it's not the choice of anyone else who isn't walking in your shoes.  If you want to horse around a bit to relieve tension instead of taking the "normal" route of going out for beers, then by all means-- horse around.  When all is said and done, children are quite ingenious with their acceptance of the world and other people, and with their constant searches for adventure and wonder, and it could do us a great deal of good to emulate them instead of asking them to emulate us.

For many people, childishness is a badge of honor-- growing into being a child is a lofty goal for many people who have very healthy perspectives on life.

Questions to consider:

Why do people tend to use the word "childish" with such negative connotations?

What kinds of things do you not do because you consider them childish-- even if they would be tons of fun?

How many childish things do we avoid doing because we're afraid of what other people might say about us?

For further thought:

This we learn from the child:  The more childlike we are in our approach to problems, the more creative we will be.  Try the fresh approach of a child.

Wilferd A. Peterson

more thoughts and ideas on children

  

   

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