Freedom Lessons from a Six Year Old

My little teacher, Sophia

Our neighbor’s little girl, Sophia, spent the night.  She’s always a delight to have around.  Seeing the world from her perspective puts my own reality in an objective point of view.  This morning it began to snow.  We ventured outside into the woods.  As usual her wardrobe doesn’t coincide with the weather predictions.  Forcing her to bundle up is always a challenge.  There are so many things we can learn from the innocence of a young mind.  This morning, observing my little Sophia, I was fortunate enough to get some:

Lesson 1:  Who cares how we look?  Be comfortable in your own skin.  A six year old only cares about the moment and how she will find magic in it.

Lesson 2:  “Is not cold outside!”  A child doesn’t feel her toes numbing from cold.  She is too busy trying to catch snowflakes with her hands.  Her little behind doesn’t feel the freeze.  She embraces the opportunity to be in the now.

Lesson 3:  “These shoes might not be for snow but I will make them fit this purpose!”  A child isn’t interested in what happens if she falls.  When she does, she bounces back up and repeats the momentum.  A trail becomes a mystical land.  The closer we are to the ground the stronger our beliefs become.  She gathers her “knowing” and moves to the light of all that’s beauty.

Lesson 4:  Looking outside is a movie.  Sophia can sit in my living room and marvel at the snow falling just as easily as participating in it outside.  The logical mind escapes her.  She knows this is a playground.  How often do we take a moment and accept the inside to be just as magical as the outside?  We, as adults, don’t take time to sit long enough to marvel at nature.

Lesson 5:  Open your mouth and capture the flakes.  There is a limitless amount of satisfaction from trying to eat snowflakes.  I watched her tilt her head back, blonde hair all over her face, and the smile with a wide open mouth trying to eat pieces of heaven.   Such delight in simplicity.  Children don’t care if the snow is dirty.  They know what they want and go for it.

Lesson 6:  There is freedom in running through the woods.  Metaphorically, there’s freedom in allowing yourself to do anything you want.  Guilt arrives when we constrict our wants and our needs.  A child doesn’t try to analyze if the ground will sustain her.  Screw that!  She is up and running towards joy.  Instant gratification is everything!

Lesson 7:  Sophia was walking through the rose bushes.  I told her to be careful.  The thorns gathered on her jacket.  I expressed my huge dislike to these wild roses and thorns.  She said that in her old school she had a friend who loved thorns.  I asked her why.  She said that she would gather the thorns in a jar.  She liked them better than the flowers.  I stopped and said to her, “That little friend of yours is special.  Did she have a strong personality that liked the thorns more than the roses?”

Sophia: “No, she was very light!”

I laughed.  I never heard anyone expressed a personality as “light.”  So I said, “Wow, she must be a very positive person to see the thorns as beautiful and gather them.”

Sophia:  “She was.”

Me:  “Do you find that weird?”

Sophia:  “No, why?  She was always happy.”

Lesson to be learned:  without the thorns a beautiful rose cannot evolve.  If a little girl can capture thorns in a jar and collect them as beautiful items, why can’t we see past the prickly personalities in others and find their uniqueness and beauty?

The freedom from a child’s uncorrupted mind is priceless.  Divinity speaks loud and clear without a static mind.  Children are vehicles for prayer and meditation.  They know what they know and rarely question things.  Now I must go and see if we can actually gather snow balls to throw at the pond.  Enjoy your day.  Find the beauty through the prickly and the prong in all!