Shiny Kid-ley Light

Just to say, I enjoyed the poem quite a bit. However, I cannot recall a situation where I have been too afraid to let my "childish light" shine through- Not that it hasn't happened, because of course everyone is self conscious about how they appear to others and I am no exception- just, I don't have any particularly exciting instance. However, I do have an inspiration- Several years ago I babysat for my friend's family. The friend, (my age) was at a lacrosse game (match? I have no idea what it's called in lacrosse) and her parents were out to eat, so I babysat the little sister (she couldn't have been older than 4 or 5). Because I am not in contact with little kids very much, and I had never babysat before, the imagination of this kid was astounding. she had a box of little toy cars (something I had when I was a kid... well I still have...... shh...) and we spent at least an hour naming them and making up a story- who goes where, what happens when the school bus crashes, getting swallowed up by water- all sorts of fun disasters. I could barely follow it, until I remembered that I was like this as a kid too. In fact, I had several specific scenarios that I would pretend to be in- one was that I was stranded on a desert island with a friend or my made up brother (it depended on the day which it was- I do have a real brother, but he's 10 years older than me and thus too old to be included in my story) which had me foraging around in the back yard pretending to be catching fish, in one I was one of 3 orphaned sisters who made money for food by selling bowls that they made out of clay (this one was inspired by the clay in my back yard) and the third one had to do with a talking dog sleuth named Super-Sniff who solved mysteries and fought crime. (not surprisingly, the lack of adults was a distinct trend in these scenarios).

Babysitting Jada, though it was a fairly low key and generally uninteresting task to most, opened a world of wonder to the out-of-touch-with-her-childhood-awkward-teenager that was myself. I frequently wish for the imagination I had when I was younger, wondering if I could figure out where it is buried so that I can dig it up whenever I have to write a short story. However, since then and other situations that had me remembering my own childhood, I have made a conscious effort to step back and remember that once someone loses touch with their wonder and amazement with the world around them, they lose touch with the vibrant array of possibilities that life brings them. I forget what it feels like to be bored, just as I did when I was younger. So although this post didn't really have anything to do with being too self conscious to be myself or to be in touch with the world around me, it does hopefully do all right to describe the thoughts it evokes from me.