Innocence

My daughter is only 5 months old, yet she is already teaching me so much about life. Today, I found myself pondering her innocence. The way she looks at the world, and what she sees, makes me constantly reevaluate the way I look at the world. It makes me feel joy and pride in my daughter, and a sense of shame in myself. When did I begin to see the world so negatively? When did I start to rush through life without taking time for the little things? And why?

It is my greatest fear that I will pollute my daughter's mind and tarnish the innocent way she views the world. I want her to remain as an innocent child for as long as possible. Unfortunately, in today's world, this seems to be for shorter and shorter periods of time. Children are being forced to grow up younger and younger. We are placing greater expectations and more responsibility on our children than ever before. We live in a world where there's such a rush to achieve everything, and we force that same mentality onto our children. The person who stops to smell the roses is deemed lazy or a fool, a dreamer who doesn't live in the real world. Rather, they live in the moment, something most of us just don't have time for. Because we choose not to make it so.

My daughter spends large amounts of time staring at her hands, at her feet, at the curtains blowing in the breeze, at the light, at my face. To her, everything is new and amazing. This realisation sometimes causes me to reevaluate what I know about the world and how it works, what I know about life. I spend so much time rushing through, believing that I know everything I need to know, and yet also knowing there is so much more to learn.

When my daughter looks at me and smiles, it fills my soul with pure joy. For I know, in her innocence, she is honestly overjoyed to see me. She loves me completely. She trusts me completely. This realisation often flaws me. It makes me wonder how I look through her eyes. For she has not yet been contaminated by life. She is still filled with awe and wonder and the magic of youth.

Why do we rush for our children to grow up when what they have now is so amazing? The innocence of youth is ours for such a short time. Once lost, we can never truly get it back. We can try to replicate it, but like any replica, it is never the same as the original. Why do we try to pressure children to be little adults? Why don't we give them the space and time and respect to be children?

I often wonder if our rush to force our children to grow up is more about our selfish desire to push them to achieve. Sometimes, all too often, innocence is mistaken for immaturity and foolishness. Yet my daughter, in her innocence, is already far wiser than I will ever be. She sees the world in its rawest form and finds the beauty in that. She doesn't need a wealth of gadgets and money and luxury to be happy. She only asks for her basic needs to be met: food, shelter, clothing. Given the greatest, most expensive toy, she will almost certainly prefer the paper it was wrapped in or the box it was stored in. Given the choice between the most expensive toy in existence and a cuddle from her mama, she would always, always choose her mama. We see innocence as foolishness, but who is really the fool? The innocence of youth should be applauded and encouraged. We could learn a lot from it.