Kids Fascinations

I remember when I was a child I used to hold such a sense of wonder for the world. It didn’t matter if it was a brand new video game, going to a new place outdoors, or even doing things that I’ve already done. New or old, I was fascinated with everything around me in the then “here and now” at the time. A lot of people seem to think that’s a product of our environment at the time in that very decade or era, especially with how much technology has apparently “taken over” our lives. That now kids can’t experience such wonder or joy because they’ve always got their heads down in their phones.

But I’m here to say that all kids experience that. I don’t know the actual scientific terminology surrounding the phenomenon, but basically children see things in a way adults don’t. Younger children especially can have this sense of “newness” for just about anything they’re experiencing or doing, and it’s all because this sort of filter that adults have in their consciousness isn’t present at all in them. They can look at a holiday arrangements with colorful lights all around and see tiny space ships in orbit. They can look at a few empty cardboard boxes and see a play place in which to have fun.

It’s amazing what kids can do and what they see, and I think all adults could learn from their sense of wonder even if we can’t see what they see. To harken back to a time when life was beautiful exactly as you saw it before you? I’d give anything to visit that again. To play in giant cardboard boxes that were housing my parents’ new home appliances.

It’s one of those things I wish I could do at a moment’s notice, to turn that filter off and just be able to sit down and stare at my rug in front of me and think the pattern was amazing. Or to sit with my dog and realize it’s a beautiful creature who has just as much a right to live as I do. These are the things I wish I could go back and do, and yet it’s probably much easier than I would ever expect simply because all it takes is the choice to focus on those things and feel those things. We just don’t make the time to do it.