Do you ever wonder when you might feel like a grown-up? When you will have all your stuff sorted and
not have the vague sense that you are making it all up as you go along? If so, welcome to life.
I love to feel like everything is under control, that life is
neat and tidy and I can see a clear stretch of road ahead, but the truth is, we
cannot predict the future. All we can do
is do what we do, trust that we’re heading in the right direction and not worry
about everything around us.
I really do think I will never get to the point where I feel
like a grown-up. Inside I am that
ten-year-old girl who gets excited over ten-year-old girl things. And that’s okay!
Why do we try and make things all serious and proper because
we are older? No thank you. Yes, of course I am going to do all the
things I should do such as pay my bills, eat healthy (always a work in
progress) and get enough sleep, but I am also going to give myself permission
to play, relax, have time off and feel free inside.
Modern day living has us so boxed up that we can easily forget
that we are only here for a limited time and that we should blimmin’ well enjoy it.
Why don’t you ask your ten-year-self what she’d like to do
one day?
Maybe she’d like to
take a book to the park with a picnic rug.
Maybe she’d like to go
browsing at a toy store to see what new dolls are out there - that sounds like
fun (I used to love paper cut-out dolls too).
Maybe she’d like to go
for a bike ride or for a jump on the trampoline.
Maybe she’d like to
dance to the Grease album or Michael Jackson’s Thriller (both albums that I
loved when I was younger, I even had a ‘Thriller’ 13th birthday
party, I think the LP was played on repeat).
It’s so important to keep that playful ten-year-old inside
of you. She will show you what lights
you up and makes your soul sparkle.
Cherish her.
What would your ten-year-old love to do this week?
fiona
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That's so cute. I had a Grease themed birthday party when I was around that age. We dressed up in my mom's poodle skirts and had the album on repeat. It was so much fun!
ReplyDeleteListening to the music takes you back to those fun times. I love it when a song comes on the radio and you are whizzed right to the age you were when it was new out.
DeleteI used to love coloring books....that's why the adult coloring books are so great, I got a Christmas themed one and it was so relaxing to sit and color.
ReplyDeleteSo true! I haven't tried an adult colouring book yet, maybe I could...
DeleteI LOVED paper dolls too! I used to "save" a lot of the outfits and not cut them out yet so I would have it to look forward to....I also liked to make my own paper outfits with tabs for them. Wow, feels like a lifetime ago!
ReplyDeleteThat's so cute, Carla. I used to save things then, and I still do. Some of my journals are too good to write in so it has to be something extra special I'm going to say to deserve the paper :)
DeleteHow fun, making your own paper doll outfits.
Good question, Fiona....
ReplyDeleteMy 10 year old self would just want to have fun; love and be immersed in whatever I want to do at the moment... Live fearlessly...
I think, for me, as I get older, I worry much about safety and such... Time to lighten up!
I saved a set of paper doll...All with her outfits... It's yellowed of course, but I love it!❤️
Love that you saved your paper doll :)
DeleteI am a scaredy cat too, and I'm trying to not be. Something that helped was the advice that if you believe the world to be a scary place, it will be; and if you believe the world to be safe, caring, benevolent, it will be too. I have to re-choose the latter over and over, but I will continue to work on it.
Fiona,
ReplyDeleteYou've posed a great question.
Let's see at 10 years old I was in the 5th grade... I remember loving playing handball. I could play all day long, even if it was just myself. I was thoroughly a tomboy, riding my skateboard, playing baseball with the neighborhood kids, riding my bike around and around our cul-de-sac. Also, I was quite a good bug catcher :) I always had a big glass jar where I kept any number of butterflies, ladybugs, june bugs, snails, salamanders, frogs and so on.
D.
Love it, D. Sounds like such good fun :)
DeleteI have spent time this year working on mindfulness, motivated initially due to ongoing health issues but continued as I felt that 'it' was helping me. One of the things I discovered was the concept of 'curiosity' - something that we have bucket loads of as children but seem to have little (if any) of as grown ups. As I read your article, the first thing that came into my mind was 'curiosity'. And yes, as a ten year old it was curiosity which drove me. My loves at that age were my dog, my pet mice, my friends, my school teacher, catching tadpoles in a creek near our house, dance classes, my tap dancing shoes, reading books, ..... well pretty much everything. I seemed to have been curious of everything. Thank you for the reminder to nurture that curiosity and sense of wonder. Tomorrow I will go for a walk along the beach and look for shells and other wonders rather than treating the walk as cardio exercise for my wellbeing :)
ReplyDeleteWhat an excellent turnaround for your walk, Lara. I thought about what you said when I was out walking this morning. Thank you!
DeleteYou know what Fiona? I've been thinking about this for some time. I feel that I'm doing exactly what my 10-year-old self wants! I always wanted to be a writer, I wanted to own my own business, and was always a bit of a homebody who loved to organize her things, read books, ride my bike... those are the very things I do every day!
ReplyDeleteI think the older we get, the more we embrace who we were as children, our true selves.
It's true, Carrie, when I look back at what I liked to do at ten, I'm doing a lot of the same things now - and I always wanted to own my own shop where I sold the things I made (a craft shop). I loved to read, create, be at home pottering.
DeleteExcellent comment :)
My ten year old self would be happy with a box of watercolour paints and a lovely block of cartridge paper. I would happily spend hours painting period costumes, Elizabethan ladies in gardens with, in the background, black and white painted (as the Victorians painted them, incorrectly of course, as they were never intended to be painted thus) manor houses.
ReplyDeleteIf I were going out, I'd be taken to the ballet by my parents. I remember my one and only trip to see the ballet at Covent Garden (I was then 12 and not 10 but what's two years?)
Or, if not painting or visiting the ballet, or having a walk in the nearby countryside with my uncle who taught me about wild flowers - to know a herb Robert from a speedwell, for example - I would be in my bedroom above my parent's shop, reading my books, perhaps an encyclopaedia or one of my Famous Five books or Pamela Brown's The Bridesmaids or one of my Lorna Hill ballet books.
Margaret P
www.margaretpowling.com
Aah, Margaret, the term 'cartridge paper' takes me right back to that age. Having a pad was such a treat because it was glorious to paint or draw on. We just finished watching The Crown, and I loved seeing Winston Churchill doing his oil paintings at home in the country. It looked like an appealing pastime :)
DeleteAll the things you have listed seem to be very similar to what you do today - and they all sound lovely :)
You are quite right, Fiona. I haven't really changed. The things I loved aged ten are much what I love today: flowers, painting (not that I paint any more, but I love to look at great art), perfume, books and reading, writing (my first piece of published journalism was in my grammar school's annual magazine - I think it set the pattern of what was eventually to come!), music, photography (I had my first camera of my own aged about ten after I'd used my mother's until then, and my first 35mm camera aged 15).
DeleteI've just seen episode 6 of The Crown, when Churchill's strokes were concealed from the Queen, and Eden was in Boston having gall bladder surgery. An excellent series, wonderful acting. But returning to my ten year old self, I was always a rather grown-up child, being an only child and having four adults to converse with, my parents, my grandfather and my uncle, plus the customers in the shop. But I didn't feel I missed out on childish games and such like - I had a great childhood.
Margaret P
Your childhood sounds wonderful Margaret, and it is almost as if you had the best of both worlds - all your fun, feminine activities, plus having the opportunity to converse with adults who did not have their attention split on other children.
DeleteI learned so much history from The Crown, and we are now going to watch some of the royal documentaries I have. Plus, maybe rewatch The Queen with Helen Mirren.
I can honestly say from my memory of the time when The Crown is set (the early 1950s when I was a young chld) the actors are very like the characters they portray, even the sounds of their voices. I can't say for certain whether the events were exactly as they are shown, but I do know that Churchill hated his portrait and it is believed to have ended up being burnt.
DeleteMargaret P
My 10 year old self wants to go sledding, build a snowman and make a snow angel and then have a cup of hot chocolate. That's what I'm planning on doing with my husband on New Year's Eve! Thanks for the inspiration!
ReplyDeleteSounds wonderful Amy, I know you will have fun!
DeleteMy 10 year old self loved nothing better than playing outdoors. A decade ago I started trail running, and all I could think the first time I tried it was that I felt like a kid again ... running in the woods, getting wet and muddy, falling down and having the time of my life. I try to get out on the trails with my dogs at least once or twice a week now. Next to the people (and animals) in my life, it is my greatest love, and keeps me connected both to nature and my inner kiddo.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds fantastic, Marcia! I love it :) Your dogs would be having a ball too, happy canines.
Delete