We Are Always Children!

I am just about a year short of becoming what is called a ‘senior citizen’, having spent almost six decades, at least in this present lifetime, on Planet Earth. The hair on my head is now probably distinctly more white than black, and my gait and energy levels might have slowed down somewhat, and so, you might want to call me ‘almost old’. But still, there is something deep within me that feels ageless, untouched by the passage of time. I don’t know what the technical term(s) for it might be, but maybe one could call it simply as ‘the consciousness of being’. It has been with me since as long as my memory goes, back to when I was a child.

This consciousness of being, that has remained unaffected by the changes my body and mind have witnessed over the decades, is or points to who or what I actually am. My mind and body have been undergoing constant transformation since I was born, but this consciousness has remained unchanged. You might want to call it the ‘Inner Child’, which exists in every adult person, no matter how long they might have spent on Earth.

When an infant comes into this world, it has no consciousness of being separate from objects and beings around it. It knows no notions of ‘us’ and ‘them’, no man-made divisions in the name of ethnicity, geographical location, culture, religion, politics, gender, class and so on. It is, one can say, immersed in a unitary consciousness. Recovering the ‘child within’ at an advanced age means going back to this consciousness, with many divisions and barriers that adults have constructed loosening considerably, appearing much less solid, and maybe some even completely melting away. One feels a certain indefinable connection with all living beings, and even with so-called insentient objects that come into one’s life, just as a little child might.

Another aspect of recovering the 'child within' has to do with the sources of one’s joy. A child gets immense joy from what adults might consider ‘little’ things—it could be as ‘small’ as getting a colourful pencil as a gift, doing a doodle or observing a spider building its web. Recovering the ‘child within’ for an adult may mean learning once again to gain joy from the so-called little delights of life: savouring a fine cup of tea, watching the clouds form into different patterns, listening attentively to a cat purr, or simply relaxing in a chair in the sun on a winter morning. One realizes then that it isn’t something really ‘big’ that one needs in order to be happy.

Yet another aspect of recovering the 'child within' for an adult is in one’s relationship with God. Like a child easily might, one might relate to God now as an intimate friend, someone whom one can freely converse with and confide in without feeling intimidated, leaving behind past unwholesome ways that might have sought to set up a heavy barrier between oneself and the Divine. Why, like a little child might, one might even often giggle and have fun with God, rather than viewing Him as a grim, glum, humourless and very adult dictator!

The fact of the matter actually is that irrespective of how many years we might spend on Earth, we always remain children—children of God, the Divine Parent of all. And so, we can revel in the fact of truly being children no matter how old we and others might think we may be!