My mother tells me I was a good child. A “joy to raise”.  Of course as a toddler I thought it was genius to clean my shoes with Pond’s Cold Cream and a few years later ask a Deacon at church with missing teeth; if the tooth fairy had come to him too. However those would be minor offenses, all things considered. Or would they?

Temptation is everywhere. The temptation to do wrong or the temptation to not do the right thing. There are times we give in because we are too weak to fight. Other times we just don’t give a flying fig newton. We just don’t care. We feel as though we are tough enough to handle the consequences. 

Then there are times we are tempted to take risks. Risks we would never have taken before that happenened. You know the thing that pushed you as an adult beyond the flashbacks of parental discipline and gentle childhood restraints. The thing that drove you to test boundaries; plummeting you in the middle of awkward self discovery at warped speed. The thing that made you ask, “And what if I did?“.

Where is that part of you today? The part of you that wasn’t afraid to try something new, learn something new or better yet meet someone new. What changed you? Who changed you? 

How we were raised and disciplined as a child affects how we look at things. It also affects our creativity and ability to think outside the box. The environment we were in either cultivated individuality or encouraged uniformity. There are moments that some children were punished for biting, taking someone else’s toy, kicking, not sharing, throwing tantrums, hair pulling and the like. However there are those who were punished just for marching to the beat of their own drum. They weren’t disobedient or disrespectful. They were just different. 

Perhaps the inner child in you is bucking against the system today. Tempted to wear pajamas at work on Casual Fridays. Sing a little louder from the pews during the Congregational Hymn. Dine alone. Take swimming lessons. Take a vacation. Exercise. Wear makeup. Rollerblade through Walmart. Dip in that 401K before age 59 1/2. Color outside the lines. Sunbathe on someone else’s roof. Change your cologne.  Learn Karate. Not wear a girdle. Go back to the buffet for seconds. Change your hairstyle. Try love again. Write that book. Write that song. Start that business. Patent that idea. Be yourself. 

Love. Breathe.  Laugh. Dance. Create. Live. Write. 

After all, what if you did?

I dare you. 

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