Artist Writer Curious Dreamer

Illustration Copyright © 2010 Jean Burman

This cartoon was so much fun to do. It brought back a truckload of childhood memories… of me and my little brother playing matchbox cars in the dirt in exchange for playing Barbie dolls and dress ups.  It was a tradeoff brought on by my mother promising me a little sister… and delivering a little brother instead. We eventually settled it amicably enough… and went on to become great playmates and the best of friends!

[B if you're reading this you can kill me later]

Ahhhh…

LIFE

Where on earth would we be without it?

[besides not here… I mean] *wink*

It turns out that what our parents told us… [and we never listened to at all] was true all along…

“Life is short” they said

But back then we couldn’t wait to be all grown up.

As kids we dreamed of having bedtime rights… power over our dinnertime vegetables… and freedom from ever having to eat anything either orange or brown and/or green ever again. We wanted to be big people and we wanted it now!

Remember how long those first 10 years took to go by?

Childhood went on for-ever!

[And here was me thinking that time was supposed to fly when you’re having fun]

But no matter which way you look at it… and despite how magical we might now remember those years to have been… all we really wanted back then was to be all grown up and just like them.

My mother used to always say “stop wishing your life away!”

[I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about - grin]

We kids played dress ups. We traipsed around our imaginary world in our mother’s high-heeled shoes and our father’s old shirts. We played house. We cooked imaginary dinner… we made tea… and went off to imaginary work. We couldn’t wait to grow up!

In our little world it was we who had the last say… just like the big people who really held sway in our lives… and were forever telling us when it was time for bed… and what would happen to us if we didn’t eat our peas!

The teenage years went by a little bit faster [but not much]… and were fraught with an awkwardness that most of us would probably now much rather forget.

At best they were just a means to an end that would bring us one more inconvenient step closer to our desired ideal of being grown up… independent… and magnificent… [IF we deigned to get with the program and hung in there long enough!]

And yes… I did say magnificent [because back then we not only thought it was entirely possible to become our true magnificent selves… we absolutely knew it was only a matter of time before we automatically would!]

When was it [I wonder] that we stopped thinking we could be magnificent?

Hold that thought.

You’ll need it later.

For most people the years after that really begin to wind out. We are now so busy getting on with our new “grown up” life… that we very soon forget to notice that time is literally disappearing before our very eyes… along with our well intentioned dreams… our hopes… and our precisely laid out plans!

From here on in… the daily living of “the necessary life” begins to suck the life right out of the living of it [which incidentally gives real clout to the old adage… “the hurrier I go the behinder I get!”]

For most people the wake up call comes in the midst of life… at a time when our seemingly insurmountable responsibilities and endless challenges reach an all time high. We realise as if for the first time that we have been living our life on an ever faster spinning wheel.

We wake up one morning and look around our lives and wonder where the time went… what happened to our dreams… and wonder why our life now looks so different to the one we had envisioned for ourselves… back in those heady happy days… running around the backyard bogged up to the ankles in our mother’s high heeled shoes!

“We all only have today” my Grandmother used to say.

[I had trouble negotiating this idea as a child…but I could tell by the tone of her voice that the message was a "grave" one - grin]

Did we really wish our lives away?

Or more importantly…

“Are we wasting the time we have right now?”

Fortunately it’s never too late to reclaim “the time of your life!”

But let’s do it sooner… rather than later.

Regardless of how old you are… [or how young you might still be for that matter]

There has never been a better time than NOW

To realise your hopes and dreams!

Go on… get out there and

BE AMAZING!

This Post was written in response to a request from fellow Blogger Abubaka Jamil for submissions to his Life Lessons series.  I enjoyed the opportunity to explore and revisit some of the deep and dreamy recesses of my childhood memories here. [Grin] Thank you!

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