"Joy"

A while ago, maybe a year or two after 9/11, an TV interviewer asked his guests to relate what lessons they took away from the event. His answers were various and mostly centered on somewhat "global" or political themes.

I thought about how I would have answered...what I took away from 9/11 was far more personal. I found that I was appreciating children more than I used to. I was smiling at them more often; watching their play and interaction more intently; and most of all, I was recognizing the sheer joy that they could experience in doing nothing more than running around.

I'm envious of that - their ability to experience "joy" simply by being themselves. It's something we lose as we grow to adults, isn't it? But, it's not just "learning the rules of life" that steals this sensation from us - it's also learning how to find your place in the world. 

It seems to me that the more we focus on our paths, goals and hopes in life, the more we learn to restrain ourselves in order to stay true to that path, goal or hope. As a child, we identify with experiencing life, because we haven't figured life out yet.  As we slowly figure out what life means and where we fit (or want to fit), we begin to identify with where we fit.  Ultimately, we learn to replace the joy that came with the sensation of "letting go", with the more restrained satisfaction of achieving something we had striven for.

Satisfaction is not bad...but, I think we lose a part of ourselves when we train ourselves to rely only on satisfaction.

We need to "re"learn the ability to"let go" once in a while...

...maybe we wouldn't have to worry about "hanging on" so much.