The Wisdom of Children

Jumping for joy is good exercise.   ~Author Unknown

I was once involved in a long distance relationship, one that had taken me quite by surprised and a relationship which burned hotter than I ever expected.  I had fallen in love with an incredible woman, mostly through online conversations.  We had a brief period of time together before I had moved away from her and literally across the country.  As the relationship developed the time had come for me to visit, the trip was planned and I was both excited and quite frankly nervous as hell.  At work, days before I was to leave for the trip I got a simple e-mail telling me not to come, no explanation, just that it wasn’t right.  I was blind-sided and devastated and unfortunately at work.  I bolted out of my office, no real direction in mind but I needed to move to just not be in one place and I walked.  I walked for almost an hour and the energy that was driving my steps was not subsiding but I had to return to my office.

As I came back through the center of campus on the main quad there was a little girl about six years old hopping like a bunny on the lawn with her grandmother watching.  She looked at me and said hello and I did the same and then she stared right into my eyes and said, “you need to come hop with me.”  It was utterly ridiculous, my world had just shattered, my heart-broken, energy bubbled and flowed out of me like a volcano but this little girl was taking me, my pain, my energy, my suit and tie and my hand, and leading me out onto the lawn.  Then, we began to hop, and as I hopped the weight began to lift, the pain subside, and we hopped like mad people on the lawn in the center of campus.  I didn’t care what I looked like, or how ridiculous the situation was, it just felt wonderful to hop.

I thanked that little girl for what she did for me and I walked on to my office.  I still hurt, my heart was still broken but that little girl had done me a magnificent service.  The lesson I took away from that meeting was that sometimes the greatest wisdom can come from a child.  So my friends don’t forget to look to the little ones when you need an answer.

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.
~Kahlil Gibran

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