Children Living in the Moment

FullSizeRender-56Have you ever asked a four-year-old what he did in school that day and got the answer “Nothing”? It is frustrating! How could he have spent hours with a teacher or babysitter and have done nothing that he wants to share?

I am developing a philosophy about this.  I don’t think that he is purposely trying to be secretive or annoying, although his lack of engagement could be both. He just doesn’t care what happened three hours ago. A trip back to the occurrences of the morning has no relevance to his current needs which are much more pressing and interesting. He is hungry, needs a potty, dropped his toy and wants it NOW!  He is just as stupefied and annoyed that we are not immediately responding to his current need, but are asking him to conjure up something that doesn’t exist anymore.

Children live in the moment. When they are old enough to understand, we teach them the importance of the past and future and refer to it in our discussions and explanations. Then when they grow up and want a grasp on a deeper understanding of life they turn to spiritual teachers like Deepak Chopra and Eckhardt Tolle to tell them to stop carrying the past and ruminating about the future and live in the present. Why don’t we just listen to children and let them teach us?

3 Responses to “Children Living in the Moment”

  1. Barbara

    I find that when my students get on the bus, instead of asking how their day was, I ask them what was the best part of your day. It may take a little thought but I put them into the feeling of what made them happy during the day. I also ask them what they are looking forward to for the rest of their day. It has them looking at life in a different way. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Aaron

    I wish every day I could live more in the moment like a child. They really have a special talent to just keep moving forward with an honesty that becomes harder to come by as we grow older.

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