40+FAB Blog
Protecting the child within
As I watch my son grow I realize how beautiful children are; the innocence, purity, enthusiasm, trust, love, joy and laughter, hope, boldness, confidence,
excitement at new things, acceptance of everyone, telling things as it is and so on. Watching him and other children bring back fond memories of the joy I once had when I was a child.
My older brother wrote a poem and a few lines in it really caught my attention and they have stayed with me.
“Every child is pure energy,
Energy looking for direction,
Environment possesses positive direction,
Environment possesses negative direction.”
– Kayo Opebiyi
It is so true that as a child grows, whatever qualities they have begin to be moulded and influenced by the environment that they find themselves in. Before long that sweet child could either become even more charming or transformed into something really menacing. Life throws so much in the mix that the child is forced to come to grips with as they grow. Parents are meant to soften those punches but sometimes for whatever reason, they could have been absent or even when they were present, they missed out on their duty of care.
The child soon finds out that Santa is not real! Adults lie too, promises are sometimes broken, the world is not a bed of roses, people can be unkind
and hurtful, fears and dangers are becoming more real and the list could go on.
Somewhere along the line those beautiful qualities of that child begin to be readjusted, rationalized and sometimes even disappear. The once hopeful
and joyous child could soon become a cynical young man or woman just like the people that influenced them.
We need to think about how we protect that child within from the actions and memories of the past.