Learn from the student?

We look at children as little creatures that require protection, sheltering, that need to be cared for and attended to...we especially think of children as students who need to (quickly) learn all there is to know about survival, society's complex ways, how to properly interact with the world, instill inhibitions, build boundaries, obsess about the future, worry about the past and trying to generally avoid making mistakes. In other words, we totally screw them up.

The biggest lesson within this context is a great paradox in itself. Children, the perceived students, can teach us, the self-proclaimed teachers, the most valuable lessons of all. Children are capable of living the present moment, the now. We, on the other hand, are constantly absorbed with that which does not exist, better known as the past and the future. Children are only concerned with what they're up to at a specific point in time and certainly won't waste time worrying about things to come (which normally never end up materialising).

Children, in their purest form, have no concept of boredom as they are constantly discovering new things and concepts. They look at the world as one big adventure, one big joy ride. We adults look at the world as a set of known constants, filled with predictable and useless routines, overflowing with labels and judgements and very little or no excitement at all. We end up running after the next best thing (holiday, intoxicated night out, relationship) in order to recreate some sort of edge that keeps us hanging on.

Biting on an apple could easily be the most mundane of things. We know what it tastes like, know what to expect and hardly think about it whilst chewing. At the same time we could turn every bite into a new experience, tasting the apple, noticing the texture against our toungues, smelling the sweet smell emitted by the fruit and admiring the mixture of colours and unique patterns of any single apple. This is the way a child lives, day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second. Always aware and constantly focused on the present moment.

Live like a child and life will become worth living. Live like a child and discover that boredom is a fictiscious fabrication, even when we're scraping dirt off our bathroom tiles. Live like a child and discover something new each time you look at a blank piece of paper, always gazing with a new and different perspective. Live like a child and rid yourself of labels and judgements, fears and inhibitions.

Our job as adults is to unlearn all of society's brainwashing and to get in touch with our original selves...back to the roots, back to the innocence, back to our inner child...