Thinking About: Toddlers and Puppies

On the bus on the way home last night I watched with interest as a young mother struggled to keep the toddler in her arms under some kind of control. He wasn’t being annoying or loud or anything bad he was just looking around the bus in open mouthed amazement at the world. I really couldn’t help smiling. He was just so full of life it was a delight to watch. It’s a bit like my attitude towards puppies – they are quite literally ‘life on a leash’. Toddlers look at the world with a real sense of wonder because everything is a new experience for them. As adults many of us have lost that ability to watch a butterfly flutter by with open mouthed joy, to feel wonder at a plant many consider a weed growing between the cracks in a wall, to be entranced as a plastic bag dances in the wind. These are every day sights that most people either ignore completely or dismiss as irrelevant. But if we see, at least for a moment here and there, the world through a toddler’s eye I think that our lives would be greatly enhanced. Toddlers not only have begun to realise that they are alive but revel in each moment as impression after impression flood into their sponge like minds. They drink in life in huge laughing mouthfuls. I am envious of their gusto and try, as much as I can, to sprinkle a bit of that into my day to day existence. It’s not easy. Life is busy and full of problems. It’s difficult to even notice things going on around you most of the time. We have things on our minds that toddlers can’t even conceive of so it’s not surprising that we don’t see the little things that we’ve seen a thousand times before. We adults are jaded creatures often blissfully unaware at just how amazing it is to be alive. I recommend the next time you’re out in public to check out the way toddlers react to things we just take for granted. Stop being so blasé about day to day wonders and at least stop from time to time to watch life go by with wonder in your eyes and delight in your hearts.