It's Vicki's fault!

Yes, I blame Vicki. She just had to mention "fried dough" in an FB post a couple of weeks ago. Since then I have been aching to return to my hometown, the place where I grew up. I am even clandestinely pricing airline tickets. I want to see the bandstand. I want to go to the Village Fair Days (and smell that fried dough). I want to sit on a blanket by Candlewood Lake. I want to take a walk along Kent Falls.

So what creates this longing? It's not as though I don't like where I live today. On the contrary, a day doesn't pass where I am not struck in awe by the beauty that surrounds me. I mean, I live in a village outside a medieval town that borders the sea for crying out loud! So what is it that I am missing that lies embedded in my memories of my childhood? I have come up with a theory; here goes...

You know the cliché regarding old people who reminisce about when they were young with crystal clear details, but they still don't know what they ate for breakfast? I believe that as children we are so much more naturally inclined to practice mindfulness. And by absorbing our experiences into the deepest parts of our memory, they become molded into a part of our identity. Thus, we never forget them since they represent who we are. It's nothing we even deliberate over; we just are that way. We take our shoes off and run in the dewy grass (and don't care that we get dirty). We hold our hands up in the air to keep gnats out of our face so that we can play "Ghosts in the Graveyard" until bedtime (and refuse to let anything stop us from having fun). We catch fireflies in jars. We lose ourselves in the crickets' lullabies at night. We eat fried dough (without having the least bit of interest whether it's GI-friendly or not).

We live. And we feel as though we are a part of life.

I think that's the secret. By seeking out experiences, by removing our veils of shoulds/shouldn'ts, by just being in the moment, we are rewarded with a sense of belonging. And that sense of belonging brings with it the gift of security. We feel no separateness because within that security we receive validation as we realize that we are always welcome to actively participate in the universe's neverending dance, no matter where we are. And we meet the universe halfway by embracing the opportunities we are given.

So while I am not one to condone "living in the past", I think that by revisiting our past every now and then, we are reminded of how we could (should?) be living in the present. And yes, while there's a lot of things I wish I would have done differently as a child and adolescent, there's so much more we as grownups could learn from the wisdom of children.