Have you ever walked into a baby’s room right after their nap or in the morning to get them out of bed? Well, anyone that has experienced this knows that 9 times out of 10 that baby will smile first thing when he or she sees you. I mean, one of those ear to ear, eyes are forced to close because of their swollen, sleepy face kinds of smiles. They may even laugh. What happened to us as adults? My friend Lindsey is the kind of girl that notices the tiny details of life (I think she should work for a CSI lab, seriously). She was talking to me about this the other day…about why we don’t wake up first thing in the morning with a huge smile on our face anymore! I told her that I was going to try it out on Jake soon, but it appears that I am going to have to remind myself the night before because I just can’t seem to remember.I think I lost mine a long time ago;) Well, this conversation go me thinking about another little moment where I felt like I have lost something. Why is it that we are born to run and yet we have every excuse in the world not to do so. I don’t mean put on our running shoes, enter a race, or run to lose weight. I mean running towards adventure.
When we entered this labyrinth my kids took off without a thought slowing them down. Me….I had no desire. I wanted to walk slowly, take pictures and the furtherest thing from my mind was an adventure. What the heck happened to me? Where is my imagination, where have my adventures gone, and why are there so many labeled boxes around me telling me exactly what everything is in this world. The good news…I have the most amazing little professors in my life to get me back to the lost Peter Pan in me.
We all know that one of the greatest reminders when trying to change anything about our life is BABYSTEPS. That phrase has taken on new meaning to me. How does a baby go into any situation in life…free! There minds aren’t completely crammed with rights and wrongs, or goods and bads. Why do we have to get so ’smart’ and have everything so figured out in life? After I called the kids back to us and they asked why….I told them that we wanted to run with them. So Jake and I handed off the cameras and we ran together. No, it wasn’t totally carefree, but we were running beside each other, laughing together and we found adventure together. It’s a start, but the next time I get to a place like this, I am throwing everything down and running like the wind….without a reason as to why:)
I will leave you with a beautiful quote from Eda J. Le Shan. The next time you are holding or looking at a baby, BE curious about the way they see the world. BE curious about why you have lost that smile and laugh first thing in the morning. BE curious as to why your first instinct isn’t to run towards an adventure any longer (running towards it without processing the whole thing through first:)
