And today IS your birthday – if you choose. Just what do I mean? Well, when I think of birthdays, I think of anticipation, excitement, celebration, fresh start, new beginnings, joy and children. When I think of children, I think of carefree, unburdened, naturally bold, uninhibited.
Not your experience of today? What keeps you from waking to the day with the fresh anticipation of a child? Perhaps:
- Responsibilities
- Health issues
- A job you don’t enjoy or don’t have
- An argument last night with your spouse or child
And this list, the things which we let keep us from childlike wonder and joy, the things which often point to yesterday’s leftovers and make today anything but a day of new birth, could go on and on and on.
Or not! Yes, human life is a package deal and no one, absolutely no one, is free from its challenges. And, no one need be deprived of its joys!
Well, what are the qualities of children that allow for the endless “fresh starts”?
- There are no energy blocks, only free flowing life.
- There are no plans. No judgment.
- Children are innocent, trusting, they act with simplicity and speak candidly.
- Their eyes are filled with wonder and awe.
- Children don’t count, don’t keep track of anything – not the failures, stuff, time, money, not even the blessings.
- The journey is all in front of them. Imagine the child learning to walk: every day, many times per day, the child falls down and Begins Again.
- The child lives in THIS moment.
It is my choice to see life with child-like wonder.
It is my choice to let go of what I’m carrying around from this morning, yesterday, last year or my childhood!
It is my choice to stop and begin again, to notice what is here now and find the gift.
Where would you like to begin again today?
What area of life, what relationship, what thought pattern, what belief, what dream is ready for a fresh start?
What must you release in order to be as free as a child here?
What if you decided to hold a birthday celebration in honor of this glorious fresh start?