Dive In

Within moments of them reaching the shoreline, they are inevitably in the water. They see it and they want to be a part of it…they want to feel the water on their skin and immerse themselves in all of it. I have half a mind to believe it has something to do with the fact that the sea is just so stinking beautiful. The only way their little bodies and evolving minds can possibly comprehend beauty that great is to become a part of it.

And I have to just sit back and envy that kind of acquiescence to something. They never stop to worry that they are not strong swimmers, that they do not know what’s in the water, or that they even still have their clothes on for that matter. They simply dive in. Meanwhile, I am still standing on the sand, spreading beach towels and plotting how I’m going to just get my feet wet so as not to dampen my skirt.

This same theme plays out so many times in different circumstances throughout our days. They have an inkling and they promptly put themselves to it.  When they want to dance, they dance. When they want to paint, they paint. When they want to build a fort, they build a fort. I, on the other hand, with all my knowledge and life experience getting in my own way, will spend a great deal of time plotting and planning for the best way to do something, the best materials to do it with, and the perfect time for which it could all be done. In the end, they will have given to their whims and satisfied their desires. Yet often, after spending so much time in the planning, I am too tired of the project to even begin.

I so admire their wild abandon when it comes to the desires of their hearts. And, standing here in my thirties, I would love to have some of that youthful abandon back. I wish to have more gumption to silence those debilitating voices of logic and reason and just begin. Anywhere. Anytime. With whatever I have in front of me.

Childhood and its innocence is a gift. I hope and pray that as I continue to age, I will slowly start to learn the ways of my children and adopt their far superior habits. Then maybe someday, I too will learn to dive in first and think later. Maybe someday I will learn how to give myself over completely to the beauty of an idea before I chase it away with logic.

See more from Everyday Storyteller –Maegan Beishline here.