It is said that you experience your most authentic nature–your truest self–when you follow a path that matches your earliest traits and inclinations. Why? As children we are close to God, free of the limitations that come upon us all too fast later on as we try to fit in with the rules and behaviors both our families and our society desire and intend for us. Because of this, as children we are able to let our creative power express itself effortlessly. And what draws our attention most is always something that resonates not only with our soul purpose in life, but also within our heart.
All Too Often the Wrong Message Shuts Down Creativity
Many years ago a journalist wrote a story about his daughter, who was in first-grade. She had brought home a drawing she had done in school. He wasn’t sure what it was, for it consisted of wide sweeping streaks of blue and green and in the center a patch of white, but looking at it he felt joy run through him, a lightness of being. To his chagrin, though, he had to ask his daughter what it was, and she just laughed and said “Why, it’s a sailboat in the wind!”
The next day he looked for the drawing to show to a friend but it wasn’t on the refrigerator door.
When he asked his daughter, she had tears in her eyes. “The teacher said sailboats and the ocean don’t look that way. I have to draw things the right way.” She held up another drawing, one that had blue lines with little points for water and a triangle for a sail and yellow circle for the sun. It was an okay drawing, but it held none of the joy of the first one. His daughter, over twenty years old when he told the story, had never drawn anything voluntarily after that.
How Do We Identify Those Early Traits and Interests?
Perhaps his daughter would have never gone into art. But she would have carried that exuberance and laughter and joy into something else–dance, cooking, geology, scuba diving, marketing, filmmaking–it wouldn’t matter. The sense of wonder would still be there, and a core freedom of spirit that would draw others to her.
Children gravitate toward the things that interest them with all their energy and attention. They might take a clock apart at the age of three, or collect stones and line them up on a windowsill, or talk to imaginary friends, or explore the world of insects. They might be enchanted by a film and live out the role of a character for weeks. Each of these predilections signals a life path. Children believe in the worlds they create. Unless someone stops them.
What Matters Most
When children have the freedom to express what they love and get to see what comes of it, they live closest to their soul’s purpose. When we take that path, we are free to emerge into our truest and most authentic self.
Whatever experience in your childhood brought you exuberance and joy was–and is–the signal for what your heart and soul are about.
Do you remember what you loved to do most of all in your earliest years? Was it something you got to pursue, or did you have to let go of it? Do you know the answer? Your comments are most welcome.
