The other day my 10-year-old son said, "You know, my favorite people are babies and seniors." "Why is that," I asked?
"Well, babies just joined the world, they are excited to learn new things, and they laugh a lot. And seniors have seen a lot of the world and they are wise. They know things, like how to make your bed properly," he said.
I couldn't agree more. But somewhere between those two ages, we get a little lost. Our curiosity wanes and sometimes we forget to laugh. We are focused on getting to the next stage in life and we forget to enjoy the stage we're in.
Omar Khayyam, a mathematician, scientist and poet from the Middle Ages, once said, "Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life." Babies and seniors understand that.
However, life is hard. There are bills to pay and little ones to take care of. Health issues and parents growing older. There are decisions to make and anxiety over making the right one. But as Theodore Roosevelt once said, "In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."
And remember to be curious. Don't let that spark get stamped out as life happens. Albert Einstein said, "I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious." And Walt Whitman said, "Be curious, not judgmental." Look at the world with the wonder of a baby and you will become wise. In fact, maybe the wisdom was there all along, but we don't recognize it until we're older.
Socrates said, "True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us." He also said, "Wisdom begins in wonder."
So let's act like we just got here and live with the wisdom of knowing we know nothing at all.