The Wisdom of Children

I was asked recently what my parting words of wisdom would be for my children if I knew I was dying. I’m not sure it counts as wisdom, but here was my answer: “Row, row, row your boat; gently down the stream. Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily; life is but a dream.” Here is why ...

“Row, row, row your boat.” It is true. In the river of life, it helps to row. It is a river filled with turns and rocks, eddies and rapids. If we intend to run the river path with any say in where we end up, indeed we must do some rowing. Some people like to ride in the safety of the middle track, some steer straight into the rapids. Some people end up spinning around in an eddy for most, if not all, of their life. Others crash from rock to rock without ever even attempting to paddle.

We have choices, and our paddling does make a difference. But notice, though we paddle, the river itself is doing most of the work. “Gently down the stream." There is no need to toil, struggle, or otherwise needlessly exhaust ourselves. Paddling can be simple. Because the river will carry us one way or another, we really don’t need to kill ourselves with the paddling. The journey can be easy if you are going with the flow of the river. If you’ve ever white-water rafted, you’ll know from experience that paddling against the flow is futile. Life, too, has a flow. Use it. If your life feels like a constant struggle, you may be paddling against the natural flow of your life. You may have chosen a work ill-suited to you. You may be trying to control too much. These are signs that the journey may not be clicking for you as well as it could.

“Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily.” Have you noticed how easy it is for children to be merry? They eat merrily, they cook merrily, they play merrily. It just comes naturally. For many, the natural merriness of life they had as children gives way to worry, regret, and struggle as they grow into adults. We can get a measure of that merriness back, and the key is to simply trust the path of the river. Trust life itself to carry us forward safely. When we can trust life, we can shift our focus from the future and the past to the present and all it has to offer. Stop, look, and listen and you’ll truly find so much to be merry about.

"Life is but a dream.” Have you ever noticed how real dreams feel? They feel so real, our bodies are even fooled. We may wake up sweaty, tired, and scared over something as silly as dreaming we ended up at work naked and late for a meeting. Life, and our perception of it, is very much dictated by our unique perceptual process. And yet it feels as real as our dreams at the moment we are having them. 100% of our experience of life is our interpretation of it, not the experience itself. So how could you look at the world so that this dream would be a good one? How could you perceive your life in a way that had it be more meaningful, more powerful, more positive ... and not the kind that leaves you in a cold sweat?

I encourage you, today, and this month, to live life by the wise words of this nursery rhyme. Maybe it's true that everything we need to know ... we learn in Kindergarten.