Everyone Was a Child Once

(Photo credit.)

Everyone was a child once. This thought overtook me this morning on the bus on the way to work. So I went with the thought and imagined entering passengers as they might have been as children, babies, tiny and dependent and filled with expectation. I imagined them as their mothers saw them, the mothers who wanted these little babies, who cared for them, cooed over them, sacrificed for them and wanted more for them than for themselves. (The mothers who did want these little babies are a concern for a different time).

Each older person became at once young. I imagined myself picking up this baby, now old, and smiling and wishing only good for them. No pain, no suffering, no betrayal by adults, especially before this baby would reach adulthood. With each imagining, my face softened and smile moved across my face. Each person became a human being, filled with hopes and desires, just like me.

Everyone was a child once. Most of us had mothers - and some fathers - who wanted better for us and tried to love us as best they knew how. Everyone was a child once and perhaps we are those children still. I must only change my focal point and focus on a different now. In this different now, I found every person’s potential for goodness, their vulnerability and their hopes for love and acceptance.

Everyone was a child once and is a child still.