Childish Authenticity

The other morning, I woke up to find two remarkably great pieces of art on our kitchen table. In my home, the wall in our kitchen is covered with art more beautiful than any I could possibly find in some stuffy museum. All of these masterpieces were crafted by two of the most skilled artists that I know, my children.

As I beamed with joy (and of course a little pride) over the two new additions to our collection, it occurred to me that one of the reasons people are so frustrated, angry, and depressed is because somewhere along the way, they forgot to be childishly authentic.

When we were children, we created art with childish authenticity. We would paint masterpieces with nothing more than mud and a sidewalk! We would sing out loud for the world to hear our song! We would hit home runs and score touchdowns (yes, there is art in this too)! We would write poetry that changed the world!

We didn't do these things to become superstars or rockstars. We already were, and we wanted the world to know it!

And then, something happened.

We were told by someone in a position of influence in our life that we should stop playing and dreaming and focus more on our studies. Perhaps some of us endured ridicule for the art that we created and so we simply stopped, allowing our gifts and talents to be carried away from us like a leaf on the wind. Others of us may have abandoned our art because it wasn't "cool".

Honestly, these are ridiculous excuses that we use because we are afraid of failing. These excuses prevent us from doing what we have been designed for and from living the magnificent life we were meant to live. Sadly, many of us fall into the trap of blaming others for our inaction, and the rest of the world suffers as a result.

The choice is yours. You can go on blaming others, or you could be much happier, as could the rest of the world, if you stopped being mature and making excuses and started being childishly authentic again.