"Children find all aspects of nature fascinating and all manner of activity fun in the making, whether it be jumping in puddles, having mud baths, chasing rainbows or making a wish to a full moon in the dark of night.They are fascinated by all creatures large and small, particular creatures with wings, whether fictional or factual. They love slimy snakes and other reptiles that slither through the long grass and squeezing fat frogs until their eyes bulge from their sockets. They delight in the touch of sticking their finger into a wobbly jelly or tasting the remains of sticky baking dough after mum has been making buns. And who else but a child would ever seek to scrape out a jam jar with a spoon not long enough to reach the bottom, or love the environment while refusing to eat their greens without protest.
Watching a blacksmith shoe a horse makes children cringe in fearful anticipation as the nails are hammered into the hoof, and fattening a goose up for the Christmas dinner table is the most cardinal sin of all. While most children love all manner of pet creature, boys have a particular fondness for rats with long tails who are known to make friends so easily with any human who is prepared to house them in their shirt pocket and hold them close to their chest. Boys also love the look of shock they can produce upon the face of innocent girls whenever they take out their pet rat from beneath their clothes and swing it in front of their noses.
The thing that fascinates me most about children is their capacity to trust all manner of things strange and their willingness to interact with it within minutes of first acquaintance, as though they'd been lifelong friends. Children live in a world of magic that adults once had but lost. They find astonishment in all they see because they relish and nurture surprise, just like witnessing a caterpillar inside a matchbox turn into a butterfly. They seek magic in the stolen moments that others have abandoned. Children can still feel that a magician's trick is magical, even when they know how it's done, and feeling a hidden baby in-the-making inside mum's pregnant tummy is the most magical experience of all! When they ask, 'How will it get out, Mum', and she replies,'The same way it got in!' their height of inquisitiveness is readily satisfied with this wonder of the world.
If only adults could harness the magic of a child for the benefit of mankind, the world would turn more smoothly on an axis of love and spin in eternal optimism.We would then be able to refashion the world today through the indiscriminate eyes of a child's innocence, employing their thoughts of purity and hearts of compassion in all we did. We would establish a humane code of conduct to last until the end of time and lay down expectations that all would willingly subscribe to and follow.
Only in the innocent heart and reasoning of a child do we find the most perfect pyramid of priority, which is to first feed, house, clothe and protect every man woman and child on the planet before going out to play!" William Forde: November 18th, 2017.