It’s amazing how little we actually know about life when we’re reaching adulthood.  But it’s just plain sad to discover after you reach adulthood how little you enjoy the life you’ve tried so hard to find and shape. 

As a teen, as a college student, and as a newlywed, I believed I was armed and dangerous with so much wisdom that nothing could hurt me and nothing could conquer me.  Had you asked me if I would ever come to know what “rock-bottom” feels like I would have declared, and likely did, that I would never hit rock bottom because I was strong, ambitious, and had confidence in myself.  Back then I knew what I wanted, I knew exactly how to get there, and no one and no thing was going to change my mind or get in my way. 

My confidence was really ignorance—an innocent unawareness of life and how its twists and turns can change you. Yes, I had confidence but not necessarily wisdom. But I appreciate and long for that confidence now because it’s that confidence whether ignorant or not, that enables you to take risks and take chances. And that is a part of being alive and having faith like a child.  That youthful innocence is what brings exhuberance and excitement to your life and to the lives of those who know you.  Innocence is joy.

In youth, you believe in yourself, you believe in others, you believe in your dreams—and you do so naturally, without judgment and without skepticism or cynicism. You simply trust and believe because the wonderment of life with all of its adventure and discovery is what gives you security.  It provides you comfort because there is a certain safety and bliss in knowing that tomorrow is another day and whatever drama or disappointment you encounter today, tomorrow it will all be erased.  That simple outlook to life is what gives the young their bounce, their spirit, and their innate ability to recover from disappointments quickly.

Have you ever witnessed a fight between two little kids?  They scream, they yell, they call each other names. But the next day,or even fifteen minutes later, it’s as if nothing ever happened. The fight and whatever precipitated it  are never mentioned.  Why can’t adults simply let things go?  Why does everything have to be talked about, analyzed, hashed out, regurgitated? Why can’t we just forget it and move on?  Don’t we realize that it’s our inability to overlook our disppointments at times that prevents us from finding the joy in life—from truly living in the now?

Here we are grown up, and our fifth graders truly are smarter than us when it comes to savoring life.  I am saddened to say that although I acknowledge this, I still forget to live by what in my adult wisdom I know to be true.  All we have is this moment, this day—and we have two choices:  really live in it and suck the marrow right out of it, or let it pass us by and wilt in regret.

I don’t know about you, but today, I’m going to choose to NOT be a Blockhead!

Today, I’m going to live like my fifth grader!