What Can We Learn From Kids?
Hello and good day!
I was sitting in my home office yesterday looking out my window.
It had unexpectedly snowed during the night, and everything was covered by a couple of inches of snow.
I tried to focus on my work, but a loud distraction pulled at my attention.
Three little boys, all bundled up, were in the yard shrieking and yelling.
From the time my kids woke up in the morning, they were pining to get outside to play in the snow.
The first one down from bed looked out the window and then sprinted back upstairs.
He shook his brothers prematurely out of their sleep.
"Come on guys! You have to see this!"
The other little fellows came running down, still groggy.
When they saw what awaited them, the three brothers put their arms around each other's shoulders, forming a celebration ring, and jumped around in circles.
"Snow! Snow! Snow!" they shouted as they jumped.
Like good responsible parents, we made them do their chores and their schoolwork before going out.
We homeschool and as such, our kids do their schoolwork in the house.
Through it all, they were itching and squirming to get outside.
As they crossed items off their to do lists, the moment when they would be free to frolic, and prance drew closer.
Our rule is that the kids can only go out to play after everybody has finished their work.
You don't leave a fallen soldier behind.
Finally, the moment came when one of the boys finished the last remaining chore, and there was a mad dash for waterproof clothing, boots, and mittens.
Then I saw them out there, in our front yard, rolling a small snowball into a big one.
Then another big snowball.
Then another.
Then they stacked them.
One ran back in
"Mom! Can I have a carrot and a scarf?"
He received the provisions and jolted back out.
Soon the snowman was done.
Then a snowball fight began.
Then they went sledding down our back hill.
I was up in my office watching, trying to get my mind back on my work.
It is admirable the way children give themselves so fully to the pursuit of fun.
Here is a hypothetical.
If you were done with your work for the day and you had an hour of time all to yourself, what would you do with it?
Would it involve laughing and shrieking and jumping around in a celebration circle?
Be honest.
For me it probably wouldn't.
But I darn sure wish it would.
I took the picture of the snowman above this morning.
A lot of the snow in our yard has melted.
And the carrot nose fell to the ground.
I love the flower crown.
Please take a look at the other photo above.
We took that photo from the platform barge that used to cross the Chinchipe River, back before the river had a bridge.
You can see the way the barge was strung up to a cable that hung over the river.
The river current pulled the barge across.
In this picture the river is very, very low.
The beach in the background disappears completely when the river is high, and nobody would dare to swim when the river is up.
It is far too dangerous.
But when the river is low, all the children in town come out of their houses to go swimming.
Back when the barge was still in operation, kids used to climb up on the cable and hang.
They'd swing their feet back and forth to gather momentum, fling themselves into the river, and then swim back to shore.
Some of the bolder kids would try to climb up the connecting cable to get to the tall crossing cable that was about 20 feet above the river.
Most of the kids out there don't wear swim trunks.
It would be a waste of money.
They strip down to their undies, or they swim in their clothes.
There have been many times when I watched those kids hanging on that cable, flinging themselves, and then swimming across the river.
I had the strongest urge to strip down to my undies right there on the spot and climb up onto the cable myself.
I was a pretty mean climber, flinger, and swimmer in my day.
I never did bring myself to do it though.
There was a big old blocking my way.
The name of that obstacle was decorum.
Or to put it more colloquially, I didn't want to look like a gosh darn fool.
I'd have felt embarrassed to be the only adult out there in my undergarments playing like a kid.
As a result, I stood on the shore and smiled docilely with the other grown folks, while the kids got to have all the fun.
I'm all for decorum.
I believe in the value of good manners and a predictable well-functioning society.
We can't have everybody running around acting crazy all the time.
On the other hand, there isn't anything much better than laughing until your stomach hurts, or swimming across a river on a hot day in your underwear.
Don't even get me started on snowball fights.
Who doesn't love a good, no holds barred, snowball fight?
Here is a challenge that I am laying down for myself.
Sometime over the next week, I am going to engage in real, genuine, childlike fun, decorum be darned.
Will you join me in the quest?
Before signing off, I want to mention one more thing.
For the most part, I have been completely inactive on social media since its inception.
I have managed the advertising for our company, but other than that, I have been entirely hands off in our day to day posting of content.
We've had a wonderful team member doing our social media work, until now.
Even though I have no idea what I am doing, I am going to take over all of our social media posting from today going forward.
There is a lot of behind-the-scenes action that I want to share, and I am the only one with the authority and access to make it public.
I plan to do a much higher volume of social media content then we've done in the past, and I hope to make it very fun and funny.
I will try to keep my childlike spirit in high gear!
Thank you so much for your time today.
I hope that you have a truly blessed day!
Adam
Click here for wonderful chocolate made with pure Nacional cacao.
Learn About The Fortunato Chocolate Newsletter.
Follow us on Instagram - @fortunatochocolate