I love Lucky Charms cereal.  I admit it.  Just like I love strawberry pop-tarts.  Both are probably really bad for me, but once in a while, it’s important to go back and feel like a kid again. I recently bought myself a keychain which is a little yellow beetle.  It goes with my car.  Not very adult but it spoke to me. It was whimsical.  And everyone needs some childish whimsy in their lives.  It helps me take myself a little less seriously.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could approach all of life that way?  I watched one of those baby videos yesterday where kids were giggling in the rain, sliding down hills and feeling leaves brush across their hair.  So much laughter.  Now as adults we avoid these kinds of things.  The rain would mess up my hair, chances are I would look really silly sliding down that hill and I tend to duck under trees rather than brush my hair through them.  But am I missing out on all of the little wonders of the world when I do that?  I mean, as adults, we’re supposed to put away childish things, right?

I certainly wouldn’t want to go back and BE a child again.  So much I didn’t know, so much uncertainty.  But boy did I enjoy playing with cars in the dirt, or making snow forts, rolling down hills in the summer or imagining pictures in the clouds.  Things I wouldn’t mind doing now, but when you’re an adult and you do these things, people look at you a little funny. However, there is nothing like witnessing someone expressing joy doing something fun.  I admit that I love to just sit in the surf at the beach and let the water splash over and around me and laugh like a kid.  I love watching my husband laugh while he watches cartoons.  How wonderful for us to loosen up a little and live and laugh like a child for a little while.

I’m starting to figure out that this is why being a grandparent could be a fun thing.  You not only get to watch kids experience things for the first time, but you get to do things WITH them and get away with it.  Nobody looks at you funny if you play with cars with your grandchild, but if you did it by yourself, someone might be concerned about your state of mind.  I’m thinking I could get them things I never got as a child, like the Operation Game.  I could get it for them and play it myself.  Always wanted to try to get the funny bone….

This time of year is, of course, the perfect time to be like a child and experience the wonder of the season through a child’s eyes.  All of the lights, the songs, the family get-togethers, the gifts.  All to celebrate the birth of the most important child of all.  The hard part is not being too much of an adult.  Not getting stressed out by all of the gift buying, the cookie baking, the endless parties and concerts.  That all sounds good, but as adults, after a long day at work, baking and icing Christmas cookies may be the last thing you want to do.  Instead we could look at it as a great way to make a mess, flour everywhere, making different colored frostings, creating designs.  Not worried about them being perfect, but enjoying the act of making cookies.

As a music teacher who has been singing holiday music with choir since August, I tend to be really tired of it once the season actually arrives.  And we won’t even go into the time it takes to prepare an entire school to do a holiday sing.  I usually have to make myself go to other holiday events because it’s just more of what I’ve been doing for months.  It’s hard when preparing celebrations/events are part of your job.  It’s important that I remind myself to look through the eyes of my students who maybe get to share this music with their families one time.  For them it is an important part of their holiday celebration, a chance to gather childhood memories, even though for me it might be just another concert.

I find myself being really tired this time of year, wishing I had the same energy the students have.  But maybe they have a lot of energy because they remain excited about all of the wonderful things to come.  All of those simple, childish pleasures that we’ve maybe become cynical about.  Perhaps I wouldn’t be so tired if I were to get excited about those things as well and remember that it’s all about allowing myself to become like a child again.