Embracing & Loving My Inner Child!

 

I had the most wonderful time in Disneyland this week!  

It seems that the older I get, the better I am at being a kid! With wild abandon, I got on every ride I could!  I took in every smell and relished in the sensuality of every flower, every color, every texture, every scene of every place I went there--I danced in the Magic and the Wonder of EVERYTHING! 

I got to hook up with a dear friend of 45 years that I have not spent much time with in a long while.  Doing this helped me to remember being a kid and playing together.  I so enjoyed her and her husband at Disneyland!  

I let it be Okay that I rented an ACV, a motorized convenience scooter, as I knew I could not walk for three solid days all over Disneyland.  I rode and I walked.  I listened to my body and I honored, accepted and did what I needed for me.

Miraculously, I found that I don't get motion sickness from twirling around on rides like I always used to--if I let go and move with the flow of the ride!  (I found this wisdom to be TRUTH in all areas of my regular life--long before now, and was pleasantly surprised to discover it applicable on roller coasters, too!) 

I didn't do "Being A Kid" very much the first time through!  I was always taught to be responsible, keep my nose to the grindstone, work hard, excel and to do my best to strive for perfection in all things.  I learned that fun and play are optional, definitely not necessary in life. 

WRONG!

It is not that those things were wrong or bad for me THEN.  They were the things I needed to learn and do and they served me well in their time.  But times are a-changin' and I am learning to let loose and shift my beliefs on many things.

My father going Home in January set me free in ways I had no idea I was not free.  I can see him smiling now, sharing my Joy in my discoveries of things I put on a back burner for most of my life, until now.  I opted to be with him and do for him what I could in the Winter of his life.  Before Dad there was my mother, and raising my children, my job, and my extended family.  I am not sorry about any of it.  I could not have done any of it any other way.

My beautiful and fun-loving grandchildren and grandnieces and grandnephews have helped me to remember how to play and have fun!  When they want to play with me, I say, "SURE!"  And I drop everything and go play with them.  With their parents, I was dog-tired from working, going to school, parenting and household responsibilities.  There was little time left over for Play and Fun--although I did my very best at it, even then.

Now I am in a different place than ever before in my life.  I can play more and have more fun than ever before!  The expanded experiences are welcomed and they feel MAGNIFICENT!
 
The more I embrace all the FUN in my life and the more I PLAY, the more JOY I experience in ALL THINGS in my life!

I highly recommend that you find the things that are fun and play for you and that you do them as often as possible!

I wished to experience more JOY!  I wished to experience more of being in the NOW!  

I have found that "Fun" and "Play" and "Joy" and "Being In The Now" are all interchangeable words for the same thing!  

I am doin' it and I am LOVIN' IT!

Thank you, Jiminy Cricket, for teaching me to wish and to dream:  "When you wish upon a star, your dreams really do come true!"

So Wish and Dream and BELIEVE and Play and enJOY everything that comes to you, even the little things--maybe even especially the little things!  

Love, Hugs & Blessings,
Barbara 

Thank you, Disney folks and Victor Johnson, for the use of your photos and artwork! 

Copyright 2012. Transformation of a Mystic. Barbara F. Manning