Finding Joy in the Lives of Children

I threw my cup away when I saw a child drinking from his hands at the trough.                 ~ Diogenes

It was my birthday this past week and I had the good fortune of having some interaction with my nieces and nephews.  I have a running joke with a couple of my nieces where I claim I’m Batman, and they explain with great glee how incredibly wrong I am.  So for my birthday I got a box fully of Batman swag, mask, cape, cup, water bottle etc… It was awesome.  I also found out that one of my nephews has gotten into conspiracies around Area 51, so I relayed a story about my trip there and sent him a deck of cards from the Little Alien Inn, which they spell in quite a cutesy fashion.

The biggest joy though was getting a phone message from my littlest nephews and niece.  The first word my niece has ever said to me was, pizza.  Which is absolute proof that she is my niece.  I got to Skype with them yesterday and they had an amazing perspective on my age.  I turned 56, my brother is 41.  So I asked them how old they thought I was, they said 35.  I laughed and asked them how old their dad was they said, 43.  It was funny when they worked out the real numbers with some hints.  It made me laugh at their perception of age and time.

I love the way children view the world, I love the lack of cynicism.  I love the way they can laugh so easily and find humor in the silliest stuff.  It’s why I love spending time with kids, it’s a time to just be silly and free.  Time to not think about deeper things or care about the bigger issues of the world for a time.  Most of all I love the fact they still posses that absolute sense of awe and wonder about the world.  I still have that to, it is often overridden by responsibility and cynicism, but it’s still there and hanging with kids is one of the best ways to tap into it.

No deep thoughts or wisdom this evening, just a few words about the joy of children and the gratitude that I have in actually getting to experience that this week.  As always, have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane