Love and the Country #23 – Childlike Blessings!

I have been doing a lot of thinking and soul searching lately. I’ve come to the realization that I think so many of the adults I know lose that special something that children hold onto, because they have decided that being an adult means giving up the childhood things that brought them genuine happiness, to which I say, hogwash!

Now I realize as adults we have more responsibilities and with that come worries and stress and those are unfortunately unavoidable, but maybe we’d have less stress if we allowed ourselves to act like children once in a while. I’m not talking about being childish, I’m talking about being childlike, there is a difference.

I want you to think back to the last time you blew bubbles, or flew a kite, or played with Legos. When was the last time you built a fort, colored, or asked for sprinkles on your ice cream? I truly think that making time for these little things in life can add up. Not everything has to cost money or be expensive. Some of my favorite things in this whole wide world are free, and maybe if I took the time to do more of them, I wouldn’t feel like I was missing out when the big, expensive things are further and fewer between.

I love to travel, but I don’t get to do it that often due to finances and my husbands health. It’s not that I can’t do them, but it takes a little more planning and tweaking my budget, because while we’re not struggling financially, I also don’t have the luxury of buying a plane ticket and flying across the globe on a whim.

I’m currently planning a trip to Arizona to visit Christen for a week, but it won’t happen until next year, but part of the excitement for me is the planning. I have a whole year to look forward to something! That’s something else I am learning, changing my perspective, looking at it as rewarding my future self instead of present day Kristian.

I think people would be more relaxed and peaceful if they spent more time doing what they love instead of always working. Simply stopping to smell the flowers, looking up at the sky, watching for shooting stars, making S’mores, playing board games, catching up on TV shows and movies, reading books, whatever it is you love to do, find the time to do more of it, because no one on their death bed wishes they had worked more.

If I have learned anything in my time here on Earth it’s that life is short, none of us are promised tomorrow, and we all meet the same fate. One day our lives will come to an end, and it’s important to spend as much time as possible with our loved ones, it’s important that we spend as much time as possible laughing and celebrating each other, and doing the things that bring us genuine happiness. We were not born just to work and pay bills, there’s so much more to life. So I encourage all of you, to take a few minutes out of your day to look at the flowers, feel the rain and not just get wet, and try to catch a shooting star, because while you may think it’s silly or that those things are just for kids, I can assure you, it will bring a smile to your face, and the more you do it, the more you will find yourself asking why you ever stopped.

Image credit: Evox Television

Love & life lessons,

Kristian