Lately, I went up to the attic. I checked some furniture and came across items covered with layers of dust. Immediately I had the picture in my mind from the time those items were in use or just bought and now they looked like in a 100-year-sleep. Once favorite toys from the kids are now stored in plastic boxes. It feels peculiar to see them again that way and at the same time remember when they were in use. But they are still the same toys.

It reminded me of our own lives, our growth, our changes, and our developments. We are children, teenagers, young adults, more experienced adults, then aging, and one day die. So many stages and once we find ourselves in the next stage, the ones before feeling like a movie we once saw. It is hard to believe that we are already so far away from it. That’s when we often ask ourselves where the time has gone.

But although we feel different about the child or teenager we were, we still feel it within us. I think that is what makes reflecting so confusing and melancholic. We are still the same but the world around us has changed. At our core we are connected with all the stages we ever went through and no development can disconnect us from them. It is the core of our being itself. It is the essence of who we are which is incarnated in this growing and aging body. All that we ever experienced from day one is part of who we are today. We never lost the child, the teenager, the student, or the young parent we were. It is still there. The soul of each of them is part of us. The caterpillar is the pre-condition for becoming a butterfly!

It is often said that we should make peace with our inner child. The one we tried to leave behind. The one that was hurt and treated unfairly. It may have been that way. But very often the child saw things from a different perspective and now as a grown-up, we see a bigger picture. We should call that child again and tell it that all is well. Many things were misunderstandings the child stored in a different way and from there, many things were perceived differently… it defined the path it walked on.

Call the child you were and start playing with it. Tell it how much it is loved and that it is an inseparable and so important part of you because it laid the foundation of who you are today. No one will ever be able to understand your inner child the way you do because it is part of your being. We may have experienced difficulties, sadness, loneliness, injustice, and more. But consider that the experiences of the child gave us the necessary ground to make it through them. If our childhood was bad maybe we treasure even more what we have today. But nevertheless, childhood was important, and however, we developed started there.

Embrace who you are today completely. That way you embrace all you have ever been. You are an amazing collection of wisdom and achievements, a source of experience, a teacher, and a student. You are development in action. Nothing that ever was is forlorn. Dust off your attic and celebrate who you are. Time is an illusion – but you are not!

In Love and Light