Have you ever shared something you like with a bunch of kindergarteners? I have. I was once invited to my son’s class to talk about insects. Yes, insects. Butterflies, dragon flies and flies. After my talk, I asked the kids, “Any questions?” Guess what I saw? A roomful of hands raised up. Curious eyes sparkled. And they asked me tons of questions………….that I didn’t know how to answer. “Teacher Emily, insects have six legs. We have two. They should run faster than us. How come they got caught by us?” Ummm……good question. Next? But if you ask a roomful of adults, “Any questions?” Dead silence.

What’s wrong with we adults? Every adult was once a child. What happened during all these years when we grow up? We stop playing, we start to care about rules, we are afraid of making mistakes and we forget how to ask questions. But we were curious, we were fearless, and we were innocent like those kindergarteners in my son’s class.

When my little boy was six years old, he once showed me a painting of his. It was about a paratrooper dropping from a helicopter. Everything was fine except one thing: the parachutist was descending vertically from the helicopter while his parachute did not open. As a normal adult, I felt confused so I asked him, “Is the man committing suicide? How come his parachute does not open?” My little son didn’t say anything. He just gave me a profound look, sneering, “Mommy, why are you so impatient? He just jumped. Could you give him a few more seconds? He is a professional. He knows exactly when to open his parachute.” What’s wrong with me? How come I couldn’t see behind the surface? How come it takes a child to tell me that in just a few seconds the professional paratrooper will be successfully landing on the ground? How come what I saw was a man going to crash on the ground?

Every adult was once a child. We were curious, we were fearless, and we were innocent. However, as we grow up, we start to shoulder different responsibilities, we start to tackle difficult situations, and we are taught by the society to “fit in.” “How come you are so late on such an occasion?” “Don’t you know that it’s inappropriate to ask questions like this?” “You’re wearing this to the spring conference?” Ladies and gentlemen, do these sound familiar to you? They are like cages of different sizes. Keep us inside, lock us there and suffocate us little by little. Little by little, we become the adults we are now.

Fortunately, the child inside us never leaves. They just grow up. Observe the children around you, talk to them, play with them, and try to think like them, and the child inside you will wake up. And you will be able to experience the world that is totally different from that of an adult. Let me illustrate this point with another story. There was one time I was very fascinated with water color painting. During that time, I would spend hours trying to capture the tranquility of a mountain lake on a piece of paper. One day, when I was painting in my study, my elder son came in and picked up the half-finished work of mine form the ground. “Mommy, could I have it? I’d like to finish the work for you.” “Sure, you can have it, but be careful. Don’t ruin it. It is my baby.” However, when I saw what he did next, my jaw dropped. This young man made a huge green stroke right in the middle of the lake---my baby lake---which to me was RUINING the tranquility of the lake as well as the tranquility of my mind. I was so angry that I yelled at him----inside my heart. You know, these days parent-child relationship is really hard to maintain. So I waited patiently for his next move. This young man then took a little brush and drew a lively dragonfly right on the top of the huge green he had just drawn. AH~~~ The huge green stroke turned out to be the leaf of a plant by the lake. The vivid scene he created took my breath away. “Why do you draw a dragonfly in the middle of your work?” “Mommy, the lake is the home of these dragonflies. I just show the world in their eyes.” Right at that moment, the child inside me woke up and smiled brightly. And right at that moment, I experienced true tranquility through a child’s innocence.

      Ladies and gentlemen, every adult was once a child. The huge green stroke in my boy’s painting wakes up the child inside me, the jumping paratrooper wakes up the child inside me and those curious kindergarteners wake up the child inside me. How about you? Would you also like to wake up the child inside you?