LET THE CHILD LIVE

As I stand at this point in my life, I asked myself “what inspired me”? When people say, “I am successful”, what is really a success, who are responsible for that success? Is it our parents? Our teachers? Life?

True indeed. It is our parents who nurtured us with love & attention. Our teachers thought us the invaluable lesson from the book. Life molded us to be what we are today. However, on the reflection of my own childhood is the greatest lesson of my life. I learned now the value of life from my Children. Most of my adulthood I was running a race looking for success & happiness. I kept running and running never stopped to ask myself where am I going?

Just a few years ago I was observing my youngest son. I saw him playing with his Bumblebee transformer toy sports car, which he managed to bring it to pieces (I assumed he was hoping it will transform again). Later he got another toy, which ended up the same way. I was observing his reaction. I could see that while doing that he was satisfied. He had gained some knowledge of those toys and its mechanism.  I felt that he would perhaps grow up to be an engineer. Later that day he came running back to my room and took shelter behind me as if he has seen a ghost. His mother came storming into my room exploding at him for messing up her room with all her makeups all over the floor and wall, while she was in the kitchen. Looking at his innocent face, those watery eyes, stuck to my belly, I picked him up and hugged him. Later explained to him that it is not good to destroy things and a little bit of sweet lecture. But he is just turning three and I knew he has no idea about the philosophy of life. I had to say something for his hearing pleasure so I did. I told his mother that he is discovering life just like we are still discovering it, in our own way and she might have to keep the budget for more of her things which he may destroy along the way.

I thought about that day a lot, which made me realize I am still running that never-ending race. The race where we have bone on a stick tied to our neck and we are running to catch it. Then there was new me slowly growing out of me. I began to have questions; how to bring out that child in me? How to learn the life the way we learned as a child? I traveled looking for some answers, as I was slowly moving away from the race. I stopped running. I began to walk was enjoying it. People around me have many comments. Some embraced me and some rejected me. Some say I am a loser and some were sympathetic for walking out of the dog race. Of course, you pay a huge price for walking out of the endless race but someone wise once told me every end is a new beginning. Have you ever stopped and imagined that bird tweeting in the jungle, what it must be trying to express? To you, it’s just a mere sound, but that sound is a message or an expression of satisfaction or pain or maybe a song. It’s just like a foreign language to us, which we are known to us. I stopped to observed the sea; it’s calm and angry waves. In a jungle sound of leaves clapping in the wind, rains pouring down like the beat of 100,000 tablas (Indian drums). It made me feel like my 3 years old son. He had satisfaction on bringing apart his toys in order to discover the component and just like him I began to have satisfaction discovering the elements of life.

Along this journey, I discovered what is the success. It is definitely not the money or the fame. It is not your look or your physic. It is YOU. The 3 years old you. That child, which you killed inside of you, as you grew up to be an adult. Give a rebirth to that child inside you and you will begin climbing your success ladder. It’s never too late to bring that child in you. Cause that child won’t care what is broken or destroyed but keep learning life as he moves forward until the day he draws his last breath and say’s “YES! YES!! YES!!! I DID IT” with no regrets while leaving the earth. 

By Imran Shah