Going Back to Childhood

Quite possibly one of the best things I've read in awhile. Quite possibly the best quote/excerpt I've read in a while.

From Boy's Life by Rob McCammon

"You know I do believe in magic. I was born and raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians. Oh, most everybody else didn't realize we lived in that web of magic, connected by silver filaments of chance and circumstance. But I knew it all along. When I was twelve years old, the world was my magic lantern, and by its green spirit glow I saw the past, the present and into the future. You probably did too, you just don't recall it. See, this is my opinion, we all start out knowing magic. We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us. We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God's sake. And you know why were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they'd allowed to wither in themselves.

After you go so far away from it, though, you can't really get it back. You can have seconds of it. Just seconds of knowing and remembering. When people get weepy at movies, it's because in that dark theater the golden pool of magic is touched, just briefly. Then they come out into the hard sun of logic and reason again and it dries up, and they're left feeling a little heartsad and not knowing why. When a song stirs a memory, when motes of dust turning in a shaft of light takes your attention from the world, when you listen to a train passing on a track at night in the distance and wonder where it might be going, you step beyond who you are and where you are. For the briefest of instants, you have stepped into the magic realm. That's what I believe."

I can't help but think of my own personal life. I remember my imagination running wild as a child and somewhere along the line I had to stop pretending and be a part of reality. I still dream of far off places and my prince charming coming to my rescue, but most of the time I keep those thoughts to myself. Why do we have to put away our childhood? Why do we have to be adults and be responsible? After reading this specific section I had to put the book down and think. There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of some memory, good or bad, from my childhood. Some are the same thoughts, others are things I haven't thought of in years. I'm one of those people who still have hope for something more and better for the world we live in, as I see how horrible it can be as an adult. Why do we want to push our kids or force them to grow up too fast? Everyone only gets this one shot at being a child, having an imagination, not having a care in the world except what dragon you are going to slay today or what tree will become your fort. Once we lose it we can't get it back. Yes I admit, I wanted to grow up once I became a preteen then a teen. I wanted to get away from my parents and be on my own, but I still had an innocence about me. I still didn't know much about the world and how it operated. I still had the chance to be a child, but I didn't think of it like that. Now I sit here as a 22 year old almost done with college realizing I need a job. Realizing I'm almost a full grown adult, no need for mommy to come give me a kiss when I skid my knee or daddy to read me a bedtime story. Over the past year or so my eyes have been opened to reality, but as I get closer to reality the more I remember my childhood and how I don't want to exit this chapter of my life. I don't want to stop being a kid and pretending to be a superhero. I don't want to stop looking at clouds and saying what they look like. I don't want to stop jumping in puddles or playing in the mud. I guess I can still do these things as an adult, but I apparently am the only adult who still wants to do these things. I like change, don't get me wrong, but I like things the way they were. I've always had these child like antics inside of me. I don't think I've ever grown out of it and I don't intend to ever lose it. I know I can't bring back my childhood and wishing I could make sure to dwell in it and enjoy it as long as I could before I had to grow up. If one thing is for certain...somewhere down the road, when I have children, I will make sure to tell them to enjoy every bit of it, because when you get to be my age, you only want to be back to a time when things were fun and easy. This is my advice to you, don't just let certain things bring you back to a certain time, like a song or a movie. Take time each day to look back and be in that magic realm for just a little bit.

Love and Peace,
~L