The children's old nursery song 'Boys and girls come
out to play' reminds us that play is a purposeful activity in its own right. Just
as adults go out to work, children go out to play. Come out, so as to play and for no other reason. Come
out, from the confines of the house into the spaciousness of outdoors,
where you can expand, explore, let rip. These days, children do not come out to
play so freely. 'Up the ladder and down the wall'? - not likely, except as
arranged and supervised by adults. They keep indoors, and play with an abundance
of toys, or on their electronic devices. Or they are carefully watched at play
by their parents or teachers, within the confines of purpose-built playgrounds.
Playfulness is often forgotten by those who devote
themselves to spiritual learning. As we learn to put away childish things, too
often we do not remember to hold on to the childlike openness and innocence that
enables us to learn in the first place. We may be so intent on weeding out our
childish fearfulness, pettiness, selfishness and dependency that we trample too
hard on our spontaneity, curiosity, capacity for wonder and for taking each
moment as it comes.
Or very often people go the other way and
sentimentalize childhood. Parents are prone to impose on their children symbols
of their own lost playfulness, and to want children to act out their own concept
of a happy childhood. Adults buy each other balloons and teddy bears, in
recognition of the sense of loss we feel in growing up. But what was precious
then is still with you now.
The
childhood of your body, and its place of shelter, are a memory now so distorted
that you merely hold a picture of a past that never happened. Yet there is a
Child in you...This childhood is eternal, with an innocence that will endure
forever (W182 4)
The inner Child represents your true self, a tiny
reminder of something wholly delightful, affectionate and vital somewhere in
there behind that adult mask. We are spiritual children, walking around crushed
under the heavy atmosphere of an alien world with too much gravity.
This
Child needs your protection...He is so little that He seems so easily shut out,
His tiny voice so readily obscured, His call for help almost unheard amid the
grating sounds and harsh and rasping noises of the world. Yet ...This Child is
your defenselessness; your strength (W182 6).
This Child, the Course tells us, longs to go home,
to experience from time to time the perfect security and peace that can only be
found in a truly free mind, in an unconditionally loving heart. And then,
reassured, the child in us comes running out to play. The world is a classroom,
as the Course tells us, but it is up to us what we will learn. Until we
remember to be 'happy learners' (T14 II) we will learn nothing but weariness
and regret. For in truth all the lessons are the same: how to be happy.
There
is one thought in particular that should be remembered throughout the day. It
is a thought of pure joy (M16 6).
