Watching my nephew, Blake, find such contentment in watching Blippi, an educational kids show, and experiencing my niece, Chloe, be in utter awe with a snowflake was more of a sacred and holy moment to witness than I realized.
Life does not need to be as complicated as we make it. Children immerse their entire beings into what they are doing, and I feel that adults lose this gift as we age.
“Real” reality hits and tethers us back to earth when the lost boy and lost girl in us desire to venture to Neverland, a world free from limits and bottomless imagination.
The contentment and awe that Blake and Chloe emulated was priceless. They slowed me down to become present, to pause on productivity, and play. Being present and playing as an adult is not something we make time for because we do everything in the name of productivity.
I encourage you to find time to be present and to play. This may look like watching something you enjoy like Blake and fully immersing yourself in that world, or it may look like my niece where you find something new to play with and lose yourself in.
Children have a way of living a limitless life that is founded in contentment and awe, and as an adult, I desire to redeem the little girl in me that doesn’t need so much because we really don’t. This holiday season I want to not focus on consuming, spending money, and making sure my halls are perfectly decked in Christmas decor. I want to focus on doing the less of the receiving, so I can give this Christmas season.
“…I read the words of a young girl who kept working so hard for more, even when it was making her so much less”. These were words that Erin Loechner wrote in her book, Chasing Slow, about her self-reflection of the kind of girl she was becoming as she became more of a resident of consumerism over contentment.
Blake and Chloe, as your auntie, thank you for taking me to Neverland where we are free to live in contentment and awe. This Christmas season, I desire to not forget the true reason of this season.