To see the world through a child's eyes...

Children are amazing. They really are. Have you ever just sat and watched a child? Especially one who’s extremely young, about a year or less even? They way everything grabs their attention, how everything is something new, something to be curiously explored until it becomes and ingrained part of their world and, thus, no longer interests them.

I have “Scoobie Doo wire” ornamental thingies attached to my cell phone. They are a constant source of entertainment to my 10-month-old nephew, Xavier, who continues to come up with innovative ways to get his hands on them. He learns something new every time he tries.

A telephone ringing, the way sunbeams light up dust particles in a room, a dog or cat walking past, a stranger’s voice… all of it is so wondrous to a small child, all so new. As adults, we become so bloody desensitised to the world. Nothing excites. Or, more so, we learnt that finding certain cloud formations, or light rays interesting is “uncool” or “stupid” or “geeky”. We so easily lose our sense of appreciation for the world in which we live.

Another thing is how resilient children can be. To use Xavier as an example again, he’s pretty sick at the moment. He’s spent the whole day throwing up. We took him to the doctor to find he has rotovirus, which isn’t so bad if caught in time, but still pretty serious.

The whole time we were at the doctor, even after he woke up after getting home, he smiled and giggled and laughed at everything. Even when all he was bringing up was acid, which was clearly painful, he would swallow his grimaces, niggle just a tiny bit, and then go back to looking at the world, full of wonderment, completely unperterbed.

Sometimes, I wish we could be more like little kids sometimes.