The Gift of Innocence

Innocence is ---

A baby sucking on its mother’s breast. 

A toddler dancing around chasing after a falling leaf. 

A new bride looking into her groom’s eyes on her wedding day. 

It’s that thing that we cannot quite put into words or define exactly.  It is an experience -- a phase of life we don’t even realize we're experiencing.  We cannot appreciate it in its immensity until long after it has passed and we are damaged and on our knees wishing to be naive again – crying out to rewind the clock for a chance to do things differently, to trust differently. 

To be the newborn that can nuzzle into its mother’s breast and think of nothing, but the human instinct to eat, to be fed – to have its basic needs fulfilled.   

To be a carefree toddler dancing around chasing falling leaves while they twist and turn to the ground. What did we once think during the moments that our eyes watched leaves pushed and pulled by gusts of wind?  

To be filled with so much love to easily accept the vows on your wedding day will last forever.     

Innocence is that stage of life we realize passed us by when we are paralyzed with sadness, stricken with regret and realizing that we cannot get back the naivety we have lost.  We do not know the gift of innocence until we are paying the price for having lost it.

Innocence becomes foreign and unexpected with age.  It is lost, mourned and then forgotten. 

Life is trying, people are cutting, and brokenness is the driving force over happiness.  There are liars, haters, cheaters, and abusers.  And, before one realizes these flaws in humanity exists, there is innocence – a naive mental state of believing that life will meet our basic needs, human decency is abundant and people are honest.

Innocence is short lived, most admired in hindsight and unattainable once lost. 

It lives somewhere between, “I can’t wait to…” and “If I could do it all over again.”