The Child in me.

I have a few uncles who adored me when I was a kid and didn't have much liking to me as I grew up. I have heard I was this petite, shy, playful and sometimes bashful kind of a kid who would almost always nod her head to everything one would say, and chat away happily with people I knew. I remember how baffling it was for me, when suddenly, those uncles who I adored in return, changed towards me. I thought it was because they couldn't handle the fact that I have started having an opinion of my own. Which might have been true for all I know, but can I really blame them for it?

It all is coming into my head now, unravelling itself. I think that is because I now have nieces and nephews of my own who I adore and love and cherish with all my heart. I just love that I can lose it all in front of them. That I can dance, limping all the way when I'm with them. That I can make stupid, funny unrelated sounds when I'm telling them a story. That I can actually make them sit on my lap and tell them all the problems I'm having because they don't understand a word of it. I love it that I can hug them anytime I want. That when I'm badly in need of a hug, if not anyone else, I have their tiny little bodies to seek refuge in. Don't you see? They're like my bestest bff!

Isn't it the best part of children that they have no opinion, whether prejudiced or not, about others. Isn't that what makes them so divine? It is. And as my nieces and nephews grow up, even I may not be as comfortable doing all these silly things with them. I pray pray pray that I still could. But I doubt if that's entirely possible. As you grow up, as you gain exposure you start processing things in your minds, you start developing opinions of your own. How comfortable would I be losing it all? Maybe that's what my uncles felt too. But whatever happens, how much ever we grow up, it is so essential to retain that child in us. Because as many opinions as we may have, it is not necessary to rub it into someone's face. Sometimes an opinion may not even be necessary. But the child in us, Is.

I love the child in me. I cherish it. I take pride in it. It gives me happiness. The kind of happiness that fills your heart and makes you fly. That kind. I definitely don't want to lose it. Ever.