can you recall the day when you left the wonder of your childhood behind?

Question

when I was young, it seemed that life was so wonderful,
a miracle, oh it was beautiful, magical.
and all the birds in the trees, well they'd be singing so happily, joyfully, playfully watching me.
but then they send me away to teach me how to be sensible,
logical, responsible, practical.
and they showed me a world where I could be so dependable,
clinical, intellectual, cynical.
(supertramp, the logical song)

it's easter and kids' imaginations run wild with bunnies, real, imagined, and chocolate... and that's how it SHOULD be.

eventually we ALL have to grow up, at least a little bit. one of the saddest things to leave behind is the sense of WONDER that all children (and a few luck adults) share.

do you remember where and when you were shown that world that made you become "dependable, clinical, intellectual, cynical"? was there a specific event, or was it a gradual process? or are you "not to that point" yet?

extra credit::: can you go back?

Answer 1

Wow.. I love that song, and I love life.



I believe in miracles, appreciating beauty, and being aware of magical things that I can't explain. I base my everyday survival on it.



I guess I was never sent away to become sensible, logical, responsible, or practical, since I was always the one teaching others those things when I was young, maybe I was old then, and so now I have decided to make myself young and appreciative that I was able to survive my 'old' youth. Sensibilty aways ruled out with me, even at the most tender of ages, when you have to decipher things so much at a young age, the sense of wonder is born, in good and bad.



I can remember the days of knowing Santa was going to bring something special because I was increbibly good, or that the Easter bunny would leave us some eggs to color, and some chocolate coins, but I don't really remember the moment that I knew something else was a reality. (Probably when I first started noticing BOYS!!) But I guess the wondering part just shifted, as it has in so many phases of my life ever since, but never stopped.



I would consider myself dependable, but not cynical, that's far too harsh a term to allow myself to become.



I go back everyday!! YOU CAN GO BACK, you can believe in the innocence of the world, and block out the horrible things, if you chose to. If you make the effort to find the wonder and the wonderful things everyday. To challenge the accepted wisdom of others, to find the happier path, I swear it's true.



And if that means I am dreaming, please be kind and never wake me.

Answer 2

I was eleven years old. My mom suddenly was hospitalized. She was in and out for 5 years after this. At eleven, I had to watch after my little sister, make the grocery list, water the plants, fix meals and it took me a year or so to get the hang of all the housecleaning. My Grandmother would come on weekends (5 1/2 hour drive each week)and help do the laundry(something else I had never done before) I also, took care of Mom when not in the hospital. I know there was just a few weeks between being just a kid and taking on adult responsibilities but it seems like a much bigger gap when I look back. Maybe because it was sudden.

I still was very much an idealist,with a positive outlook on life. I did move out at 17 when I had to think of myself. I then began to pay for bills and THAT brought out the realist, the cynical thinking. All that hard work! Only to pay BILLS! Childhood wonder was completely over then. Lol



Can I go back?-- In a real and tangible way, yes. I adore playing with kids and indulging in the imagination. I can be Spider woman,eat pretend food, be a silly grown up teacher, a dinosaur, and I can go to "infinity and beyond"! Not to mention when I get picked for best answer, I feel like a kid. Think about it, it is the equivalent of getting a gold star on the picture I drew. I get excited about numbers! Ha! Lol

Answer 3

I'm not sure if I was ever young. Some people are just born older, ya know? I remember resolving to never do anything to make my mother cry when I was about 10 and my older brothers were giving her so much trouble. They were always on drugs or getting arrested or running away. So, I tried to be perfect, always.



Probably the big "coming of age" event was when my dad died. I was 21. I had to drive 16 hours to Maine with my brothers and sister (my parents were divorced by then), and make all arrangements with the funeral home, the VA for a headstone, the church, the florist, find pallbearers, buy a shirt and tie for my dad to be buried in, buy suitable clothing for my brothers to wear, keep them sober for the funeral, comfort sister and brothers through assorted bursts of breakdown, and deal with an obnoxious uncle speaking badly about my mom (while keep brothers from killing said uncle). Hmmmmm, yeah, I'd say I never felt like I was really a kid again after that.



But I still like chocolate easter bunnies to this day!!! :) I think you can go back somewhat. I find that I get a sense of childlike wonderment (not to be confused with craptacular wonderment, lol) when I travel someplace new and strange to me. Walking down a street in Japan or Hong Kong, or through a street fair in Switzerland -- you notice things and wonder what they are, what they mean. You smile at the things that strike you as silly but to the "grownups" there they are so normal. I think that feels kind of childlike sometimes, and this discovering of a world is the kind of thing that I miss from childhood. I recapture that with travel.



Happy Easter, Patz!

Answer 4

I'm goin straight for the extra credit:

No, unfortunately, my friend, time cannot be reversed... Instead, however, it can be frozen at a particular moment and no longer perceived from that point forward... The time you, personally, see passing is but an act of your imagination - Imagine how old you'd be if you never slept. Without the built-in timelessness of our dream world and other dis-associative moments, our fragile bodies would be in a constant state of battle... Time, during the periods we perceive it, is only a means by which ones' psyche may judge how much wear and tear to calculate in...

Speaking of wear and tear - as soon as you ditch that 'sense of wonder' - well, you're busted.

It's at that point that situations that otherwise would have been simple acts of cause/effect, action/reaction become arduous toils instead of opportunities to do something neat... That is, when we start looking at stuff as a hassle instead of a challenge, we just get old.

Let's go see what more sane people have to say here

Answer 5

I know exactly when my childhood ended, no need to speak of it or elaborate. Can I go back? Well, actually in many ways, yes. I have found the peace I once felt as a child. I can go out in nature, relax, look at a small flower and feel awe. I can lie in the warm sun, drift and daydream, let my imagination wander. It was quite a journey from the end of my childhood to the discovery of inner peace, it sure didn't happen overnight.



Not all my time is idyllic. I am an adult with adult responsibilities, and at times I even lose my inner peace. The second I notice it is gone, I stop in my tracks, and get myself plugged back in to the real source of peace.

Answer 6

Paaaatz! What kind of question is this? Are you trying to make me really think today?! Or get depressed!? :)



It is sad to think that there is a point when we have to grow up,become responsible adults and be sensible. Practical? Hmmm...That's debatable! :)



For me I think the birth of my first child made me grow up. I now had someone besides myself to be responsible for. To set examples,to make the right choices,etc... However from there it became a gradual process for me. As the children grow,so do I. But that doesn't mean that I have to be serious all the time either. My kids are the joy in my life and I relive my childhood through them. They create memories every day of their lives and every one of their memories reminds me of my own.



Can you go back? Would you want to? Personally I don't think it is possible to go back to those days of innocence and wonderment,but I do think it's OK to be a kid at heart! :)

Answer 7

I once heard someone say that childhood is over the moment that you know you're going to die.



I have kept myself young in the mind utilizing a simple approach to Buddhism. If you don't grasp for something, you can stay close to it.



I know nothing. This is liberating for the mind and soul.

Keeping open the sense of wonder. You don't know anything either. If you think that you do KNOW something, then you have constructed a perception.



Know nothing and the World is.



My 3 year old daughter helps me in this regard. Strip away your Mind's filters and the calluses on your Soul by not lamenting what you think has been lost.



It is always here.

Answer 8

I can't change, so I never do. I can't go back because it never leaves me, so the frame of reference is the constant. I can't go forward, because I'm always in the now. I just am, and I accept that. And as strange coincidences seem to be an occurrence that keep popping up here I am going on an Easter egg hunt shortly, which I'm very much looking forward to! I love chocolate, well in a hierarchy sense that is, I mean there are other things that I love more, but if I go hunting for that I may find myself in somewhat of more precarious "now"; if you know what I mean. I hope the bunny is good to you, happy hunting; and be very very quite.....

Answer 9

I grew up in a fairly unstable environment. My father was an alcoholic, and my mother, God bless her, was a workaholic. I learned from a young age to depend on myself and to always be on guard. Sure, I was normal as a kid in the sense that I played with toys and believed in Santa and all that...But there was always a part of me that was older and world-weary, even at the ripe age of 5.



I wouldn't know how to go back and reclaim what I never had. I can use my experiences to ensure that my children have a childhood filled with the sense of wonder and innocence I was deprived of.

Answer 10

oh yes i was twelve when i lost my childhood. sometimes i write short stories and poems of my youth and it helps bring it back. there was a specific point when i did lose it though. the day i transferred to a public school from a catholic school. I lived a very sheltered life, and i learned how cruel kids can be to some one like me. it was very hard and that's the day i lost my childhood, my self esteem, and everything else that goes along with that. it took a long time to get over it, but on that day, i found out that the world is a cruel place and i need to grow up quick before it gets me!

Answer 11

When you lose that sense of childish wonder, the world becomes a dreary place. I've never lost it. There are times when I feel overwhelmed, world weariness, but there are always bird songs, kids laughing, a little kid riding his horse at speed down the road, and I realize how great the world is and how glad I am to be in it. Preserve the child within.

Answer 12

I would like to say to those who miss there childhood and wish they could get it back to be happy they even got to experience it. Many children never have the privilege, for many different reasons. So children are hungry and sick, to weak to enjoy the "wonder of life" other are too afraid that Daddy will beat them because he had a bad day or never get to decide who they will give their virginity to because it was stolen from them when they were too young to defend themselves or to even know for sure that it was wrong. To those who had a childhood, be happy. Not everyone is SO fortunate. Some people would not wish their childhood on anyone.

Answer 13

dang that question is pretty depressing.

i want to go back to it definitely, but its like impossible because you know what you know.

i don't think there was a specific moment for me to leave the wonder behind. i think just over time the more i saw and found out and learned the more mature and serious i became.

The only place that reminds me of my childhood is Disney World and i go there every year. I mean i still ride dumbo and get my pictures with the characters. but i miss my chilhood more than anything.

Answer 14

Fairy tales can come true, it can happen to you, if you're young at heart. And if you should survive to a hundred and five, think of all you'll derive out of being alive if you're young at heart.

(Frank Sinatra, Young at Heart)



Getting older is inescapable, growing old is optional. I believe our lives are made up of the reality we create for ourselves. I decided long ago to stay a child. When I was young being a child was natural. I would look around me at adults and wonder what happened to them? As I grew older it began to happen to me as well. One day I looked in my backyard and saw clover. I didn't think about going out and looking for a four leaf one. I didn't think about where the leprechaun might be hiding. I thought about getting some weed killer and getting my lawn to look like everybody elses. Fortunately I stopped myself just in time. I got my 5 year old son and together we played. Again I could see the world through his eyes. God has given me a wonderful gift to become a child when I play with one. Being a child for me today takes work. I have to force myself to slow down, take the time. The reward for doing so is I get to stay young. There are 80 year olds I know who are far younger than some teenagers I know. Am I a child? Everyone who knows me would answer YES! This has been both a blessing and a curse in terms of business. If someone needs creative thinking, they are quick to think of me. If they need an organized business plan, I am passed over in many people's minds. However, I have learned to surround myself with people who have gifts that run oppisite of mine. In this way I can dream and create, while they get to organize and operate. They love it. I love it. If you want to stay a child, you must learn to allow grownups to help you. If you find that you want all the credit, or can't allow others to perform important duties, then I'm afraid you must grow up. As for me, I am willing to allow those around me to play grown up. I will stay a child. So far life has been great.

By the way if you don't like my answer, all I can say is:

Nanny Nanny Boo Boo!

Answer 15

It was the day I had surgery at 11 years old. It was minor, but just shocking enough that the world never seemed the same.



Here's a little trick; you CAN get it back. But it's a long and arduous process, filled with doubt and uncertainty and responsibility.



It's called... have a child of your own. See though his eyes.

Answer 16

yes, i do. it all happened in a split second. i was about 11 maybe younger, daydreaming, just thinking about life. then the weirdest thought occurred to me. i thought "what am i?" i thought, "i know i am human and that i have a soul, but what exactly is that? and what is death?, and will i still be me when i die?, when will i die?" and then when i had no answer, the fear rushed in. i was no longer secure in the world- care free, i had a big FEAR and that that fear followed me around for a few years and was the motivating factor for me to open my mind, explore different belief systems, read lots of books, and ultimately to look with in. in a couple of seconds, with a series of thoughts, i lost my innocence.



i do believe you can "go back" in a sense. i have experienced moments of pure wonder, or unconditional love, or complete fearlessness...but they are not maintained for very long. it's all good though, life is progressive, and everything has purpose.

Answer 17

My goodness you have really made me think. I had a normal childhood and for the most part I was happy but something always made me sad I don't know what it was, it was just there. I don't have too many specific memories, I've blocked a lot out. I can't figure out why. I hadn't thought about it for a long long time, so thanks. Go back? I don't know, afraid there may be a scary dark secret waiting for me.

Answer 18

I think one of the reasons I love writing and reading fantasy is because I am trying very hard to retain my sense of wonder. I am clearly an adult but I think being able to do so is one of my strengths, made stronger every time I hear a child laugh.

Answer 19

I am still in my own little world suffering also from a psychotic disorder. So I still have the wonders and when I get better and grow up to a adult I will still keep them!

Answer 20

I used to be so full of energy and ran around like a nutcase, i fell plenty of times. Then when i got older..i fell down and actually hurt myself really bad.



I guess that was the point where i thought, damn..i better start slowing down.

Answer 21

when you're faced with a failing marriage and nobody for support.

Can we go back? I don't think so. Once those rose tinted glasses are shattered. They are shattered for good.

Answer 22

Oh I just understand every single word you say sooo much!

Unfortunatelly we cannot go back, it would be such a wonderful thing but!

Answer 23

When I was 9 year old and my brothers friend decided to put his hand up under my skirt one day when he was alone with me.