“Trust is like that feeling child has, when you throw him in
air and catch again, he enjoys it.” Really? Do you think it is trust? Well, if
you are of a logical kind of a person who believes only in facts then try this
experiment- Get hold of a child(beg, borrow, DON’T steal), throw him up in the
air, and forget to catch him (Note: This experiment is NOT to be tried but just
imagined). So suppose a mother/ father hurt their child while playing, the
child’s ‘trust’ is broken, and now what? The child won’t ‘trust’ its parents
again for having hurt him? Will the child shun its parents forever for breaking
its trust? Will the child now develop ‘distrust’ towards them? The bigger
question is does child even know what ‘trust’ or ‘distrust’ means? It’s US who
are trying to make meaning of everything around us. Children don’t find it
necessary to find meaning in what they do. They in every sense ‘follow their
hearts’. Filling sand in their pockets, collecting rubbish, throwing things,
jumping and clapping randomly, saying things in a language we can never
decipher and there are a million other cute things you might have observed.
None of these things might make any sense to us, but the kids find their own
joy in it which is beyond our understanding. When the kid is thrown in air,
he/she is not even thinking of what will happen next. It just enjoys that
moment. It does not think of the future or the consequences. Unlike us it’s
carefree. I think more than the action it’s the consequences that follow which
we fear. But children just live in the moment and thus are fearless. No
overthinking. No reflecting. No judging. No assuming. All is about feeling and
acting upon those feelings.
Feelings are to be
felt. And thoughts to be thought. But we just do the vice-versa. We feel about
our thoughts and think a way too much about our feelings. A child thinks so
independently, free from presumptions, assumptions. A child’s thoughts are
original, formed by their own experiences rather than books, scholars or
teachers. Children are action-oriented, not thought-oriented. They do things
for the joy of doing it. Judging and labelling it ‘wrong’ or ‘right’ is the
work of the ‘experienced’ adults.
A child is always open to new experiences and that’s where
the enthusiasm and the energy come from. Newness is the motivation. Once the
experience is old you are no more motivated to go on with it. When we are
curious, we learn more. Well, then, one of the ways we can keep ourselves
enthusiastic in life is by being curious and open to freshness in life. Don’t
think that you can’t be a child again. Every time you do something new, do it
without expectations. Do it for the experience. For the joy of ‘being’. And
you’ll feel child-like.
Sip your juice drop by drop, don’t gulp it in. Indulge
wholly in the action of drinking. Live the moment. Don’t think of anything else
but the juice, the fruit which is crushed, the feeling it leaves on your
tongue, imagine it travelling through the food pipe and into your stomach.
Relish it. And trust me, you’ll cherish it.
