The Magic of Childhood

The other day someone was talking about the magic of childhood. At first I couldn’t remember any in mine. Someone else said those magical places were where a child could go for safety. I felt there must be something wrong with me because I never felt safe as a child. After all, not all children have safe childhoods.

Discussing this with a friend, she said she escaped into fantasy as a child because she didn’t feel safe anywhere else. I realised I did that too; fantasy and imagination and creativity. I do that now, but not necessarily for safety. I do it now for the magic of it. At first I couldn’t identify that magic in my childhood, but I can identify the magic in my life now, all around me, in nature, in relationships, in happenings in my life and the things I do. I am so grateful for that. And it’s maybe that magic that makes my life safe today, that gives me something to believe in and that makes me believe in me, because I am part of it. But it also makes me believe in something bigger than me that I am a part of – and in the interrelatedness of everyone and everything.

That magic is the child in me, my inner child if you like. And it’s that child that I want to integrate into my life today – and live it through my adult. I couldn’t do that as a child because I had no adult of my own and those around me, not being in touch with their inner child, being too burdened with responsibility and immaturity, couldn’t support it and live it with me. But I have always felt, as an adult at least, there were elements of magic in my life.

I think it’s essential to keep that childlike quality, which is essentially positive and optimistic but, with the experience of adulthood and maturity, no longer naïve. It’s sad if we lose that as we get older. There is playfulness and freshness and youthfulness in that magic that you can have however old you are and how ever responsible. So it’s important to keep your life simple, as I said in my previous post, so that you don’t become burdened and miss out on it.