Sweet Innocence

There is nothing as beautiful as children. My favourite picture is a tattered bank add that I have had taped on the wall of every home I've had for as long as I can remember. It shows two little boys in raincoats laughing and trying to catch raindrops on their tongues, with a caption saying - Remember when you didn't worry about money. It is perfect.

This week, while out running errands with a friend, we noticed this little girl with chubby cheeks and pony tails trailing behind her mom in a store and repeatedly asking if she could have some candy. But not in that whiney, makes you want to slap them, kind of way. In a really quiet little voice that just promises to be good if you say yes. As we sat in the car afterwards organizing our stuff and discussing the complexities of our day the same little girl came tottering out of the store following mom to the car. She was kind of off in a daze and blindly following here mom until she saw it - a huge puddle right beside the car. She was instantly on a new course, and despite urging from mom to get in the car, she walked slowed and purposefully to the middle of the puddle, and then in her bubble gum pink rubber boots made one big whopping stomp. It was beautiful. It actually took our breath away and stopped the conversation dead as we laughed at the sweet innocence of this little girl.

So how does this fit into psychiatry and going to school in Thunder Bay? Well besides the fact that clearly we have more fun going shopping than going to work...we all have a plea to send out to the world - Make sure that every child has a happy childhood. Your kids, other people's kids, kids you see on the street - let them be sweet and innocent. I have yet to see a patient who said "My childhood was great, my family all got along and loved me, and then when I was an adult it all went to hell". That's not to say that people with good lives can't have mental illness, but just that having a rough start in life is a ridiculously high predictor of bad things to come. I have said this before but these people have had awful lives. In my opinion they are fully justified in now hearing voices, seeing things and having labile moods! I dare say that most of us would not have even made it through half of what half these patients have gone through.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to protect all the children you know from trauma, give them unconditional love, let them be creative and playful and don't make them grow up too quickly. And of course - teach them how to puddle jump...its good for the soul :)


Lots of love
Pamela

Currently reading: Cognitive Therapy for Challenging Problems
Currently listening to: Johnny Cash

Lent Countdown: 17 days without meat, 30 to go
Seafood: 4 times
Organ meats: still not that desperate