Your Inner Child
Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them.― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry I read an article in this month’s Bazaar magazine (click here to read it yourself)
I read an article in this month’s Bazaar magazine (click here to read it yourself) – a timely reminder for all of us how important it is to nurture our inner selves. This includes remembering the simple joys of childhood; the whole body rush of being present in the moment.
No one expresses the childhood experience like Shel Silverstein. (If you haven’t read “Where the Sidewalk Ends,” you’ve missed an important piece of growing up.)
I cannot go to school today”
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
“I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry.
I’m going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I’ve counted sixteen chicken pox.
And there’s one more – that’s seventeen,
And don’t you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut, my eyes are blue,
It might be the instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I’m sure that my left leg is broke.
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button’s caving in.
My back is wrenched, my ankle’s sprained,
My ‘pendix pains each time it rains.
My toes are cold, my toes are numb,
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow’s bent, my spine ain’t straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There’s a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is …
What? What’s that? What’s that you say?
You say today is ………….. Saturday?
G’bye, I’m going out to play!”
When was the last time you let your inner child come out and play?