The Impressionable Child

When we are small tots, we clearly learn to please. We want to do the right thing. We are like sponges, soaking up all information we can get into our senses. We learn from watching our parents, from school, from laughter, song and exploration. When someone approaches us who is methodical, pre-meditated, and instills their trust in us, we as children trust in return and want to please. Even if that internal red flag goes up, we have a hard time making sense of it because we are torn. We want to please, yet at the same time, we know something is terribly wrong. Now, add on top of that threats of harm to yourself or to your parents if you refuse or voice a rebuttal. From a child’s perspective, this translates into fear, sadness, guilt, anger, and later, a much-distorted sense of what relationships are all about. Not knowing how to deal with this avalanche of feelings, children frequently tuck this inside of their tiny hearts or lock it away in a box deep in the recesses of their brain. They are unaware that as they grow it will rear it’s ugly head from time to time. There are a few coping mechanisms and it is difficult to draw a direct cause and effect. These children are frequently lost emotionally and are prisoners behind their scars. Frequently they will have dreams of flight, wanting to fly away to far off lands, or just fly above their current residence to escape the gravitational pull of reality.  That is why disclosure is of the utmost importance. Not only children, but adults who have been victimized or emotionally abused must disclose if they are able to reach the apex of a happy fulfilled life. Through disclosure comes recognition, through recognition comes insight, and through insight comes motivation to change, to situations differently. Life is about change. It is a constant growing process. Do something different, explore, create a bucket list, live and risk. You have one chance. Make your mistakes; stop beating yourself up and move on. Life is wonderful, even amidst the poor state of the economy and struggling times. It might do us all good to see the world as a child does. Remember the awe you experienced at the sight of your first sparkling Christmas tree, your first falling star, or your first experience with a playful puppy. The simple aspects of life fill the child’s heart, why should they stop filling ours ?