'Elated Anticipation of a Child' by Aaron Knapp
Remember when you were a child, your day’s goal was simple.
“Go out and Play”
Last week, my friend, Aaron drew a very nice picture of a little girl playing. He then asked his viewers to remember their own childhood and the simpler times.
Do you remember those times and the simple games?
Running and Chasing
Most of the games involved ‘running away’ or ‘running after’.
Now, what are we ‘Running Away’ from? and what are we running after?
I’m running away from my fears and the obvious truths about myself.
I’m chasing after some dreams – become this and that. Hoping that when I finally get them, I will be happy!
But what about from now to becoming/doing something? Most of us don’t realize that we are losing THIS time and moment to be happy.
The simple Question
I remember in the Art of Living session, the guru asked the 100-200 people present there to write answers for a simple question.
When will you be happy?
So we all went home and next day, came back with our answers.
I wrote something like this
I will be happy when
- I buy a super bike.
- I travel the world.
- Become a writer.
The guru was asking random people to tell everybody their own answers. Some of them were
When my children get married.
When my parents are happy.
When I get a job.
When I become rich.
When I meet my goals.
When I become this or do that.
I was patiently listening and then it HIT ME – the answer to “When will I be happy?” is
NOW!
It was so simple and obvious and none of us ever realized it. In our haste to catch our dreams
we forget the present,
we (sometimes) forget our loved ones,
we forget our own simple pleasures.
We lose today to gain tomorrow.
Later, the guru told us the same answer. Before that, in my over-excitement and happy with this ‘eureka’ moment, I told the people around me about the answer.
At least I got the theory right. Now the trick is to implement that 
Don’t make a fool of yourself
Thats what you would think when you, as an adult, want to play these simple games. After all, no self-respecting adult would just run around chasing another adult, especially in a silly game meant for kids.
Stop! Don’t think like that. You don’t have to imitate other adults.
We had a simple activity at AoL (Art Of Living). Two people sit facing each other and on the count of 3, A will start clapping and B has to stop A from clapping. That’s it!
I was A and so the first time, I could, with some effort, stop my partner from clapping.
When it was my turn to clap, someone mentioned that I could try anything to keep on clapping, including running away.
And so with the count down 3 2 1..I just got up and ran away clapping, my partner was completely taken by surprise.
Others also tried a similar escape, the dome for the AoL session was filled with clapping, running, giggling adults. The laughter was not forced, we were kids again. It was pure fun!
Now imagine doing that on your own, without a Guru asking you to do it.
We don’t! We NEVER do. We are just too embarrassed to act/play like kids in public, and for some even in private.
Why do we readily agree when a guru asks us to do so?
Why is it perfectly alright for 22 grown men to chase after a ball in front of thousands of people and so embarrassing to play chasing games with other adults in a small park?
Legally doing it
So I think some of you agree that we should have fun playing simple games, at least some times.
Face it, our lifestyles make us sit on our ass for 24/7 365 days. We are out of shape.
Running around until your lungs burst is great.
There is a way, to try out these games and avoid the embarrassment.
Chase Kids!
So if you can’t chase adults, then chase kids, they don’t mind.
Playing kid games with kids is perfectly legal and nobody will stare at you or mock you now.
Dads and Moms with young kids are lucky here, they are having fun joining their kids in games.
For rest of us, we can just borrow our nieces or nephews or entertain the neighborhood brat pack.
Chase Girls
Yeah. We men have done that from ages. We just don’t it literally.
You could try chasing after your girlfriend, although very entertaining for others, it wouldn’t work. Girls these days are too “lady-like” to just run around
So next time you get an opportunity. Have fun. Don’t worry about being watched or your work problems.
Just Run. Be happy NOW!
Let me know if you had fun imitating kids in their fun.
