Inner
Child Speaks
by Marie T. Russell
The inner child sits and waits. It waits
patiently for the adult to notice it, to talk
to it. It wonders how many more nights,
months, or years it must wait. It asks itself:
"How can I get her attention? How can I
get her to talk to me, to listen to me?"
It thinks back of its past experience
with parents and teachers and remembers that
many times, to get attention, one had to be
'bad' or naughty. That always got
attention. So it wonders... if I am the inner
child, how can I be 'bad' or naughty and
get the attention of my adult self? The child,
trusting her intuition, does what comes up.
The adult finds herself compulsively
eating, getting into fits of anger, sadness,
and fear. As a rational adult, she cannot see
where this behavior is coming from. As a
conscious person, she feels that this has to
do with some unresolved issues. "What are
they? What is the problem here?" she
questions.
The child cries out! "Listen to me!
Pay attention to me! I can help you. I have
many insights for you, and much joy. We can
have so much fun together, so many experiences
of love and laughter. Reach in to me. Touch
me, feel me, heal me, and I in turn will touch
you, feel you, and heal you."
The adult feels confused. She feels the
need to nurture and be nurtured. She senses
that she is wounded, yet cannot see the wound.
She feels that something is trying to come to
the surface. What is it?
The child cries out, "It's me! I'm
here crying out for you. I need you. I love
you. I can be your partner, your helper, your
guide. All you need is to start acknowledging
my presence. Stop ignoring me. Stop pretending
that you are all grown up and are past 'that'
stage. Come back to earth. Come back to being
present in this body — after all it's the
only one you got and it's all ours. Yours
and mine. The inner child and the adult.
"I am the part of you that you have
hidden inside — the sensitive one, the
caring loving one, the exuberant one! That's
me! You have become the serious one, the one
that has no time to play, to simply be. You
are the busy one... wanting to do better, to
improve, to advance your growth, your career,
your relationship, etc. I simply want to be
— mostly joyful and happy.
"It's ok to be sad now and then, but
I don't like to stretch that stuff out. I
feel it, let it out, and move on! The adult
that you are seems to enjoy mucking around in
that stuff. Not me! I'm a child, and I want
to play and enjoy life. I don't believe that
we are here to be miserable. I think some
miserable people made that up so that everyone
would be miserable like them. Well, I don't
buy it! I trash that thought!
"I think that God made us and God
loves us, and He/She surely wants us to be
happy! After all, don't all parents want
their children to be happy, deep down? It's
just that because they have buried their own
inner child, they think that happy means
having a good job, a big house, secure income,
and all that stuff. We inner children know
that is all crap. What's important is the
love and the joy and the simplicity. We don't
need fancy toys. We just need a loving lap
that we can sit on and feel loved. And then we
can make up toys as we go along.
"You adults make it so complicated!
Give us a KISS. Yes! K.I.S.S. Keep it simple
silly! Look inside yourself and invite your
inner child to come out and play. Tell it that
it's ok. That you won't scream at it
anymore, won't tell it to go away, or tell it
that it's not behaving appropriately.
A-prop-riot-e-lie. That's a big word that I
learned from you. I know what a prop is. I
know what a riot is. I know what a lie is. All
those words together just don't make any
sense to me. Except that maybe behaving
appropriately is a lie which becomes a prop
for a riot. Did you ever think about that?
"You told me that it was not
a-prop-riot-e behavior to dance in the street,
or to sing with the birds, or to talk to the
new people that I discovered on the street —
you call those people strange-hers. You told
me that it is not appropriate to be playful
and childlike, and that I had to act your age.
Well I've got news for you. I'm an inner
child and I am eternally young... so my age is
whatever I choose. And today I choose to be
five years old. So it is okay for me to sing
and dance and love everyone I meet, because I
know that God loves me, and that I am loved by
everyone because God is in everyone.
"Do you know what is not appropriate?
When you frighten me with your grown-up
mixed-up beliefs. You have a picture of the
world that I do not like, and you try to
frighten me into doing what you want by
telling me about your picture. Well your
picture is all wrong! Do you know why? Because
your picture has a nasty God in it that
punishes children and he gets very angry when
they make a mistake. Well, my God loves me and
loves you too. And my God does not frighten
little children. Instead S/He provides birds
that make music, fruit trees for food, sun for
light and warmth, grass to roll on and lay on,
animals to play with, and lots of other good
things.
"Your picture is just a horror movie
that you have made up, and I don't watch
horror movies. So if you insist on watching a
horror picture, keep me out of it. Don't
even tell me about it. I don't like to hear
yucky stories. They make my belly and my heart
hurt.
"But if you decide that you would like
to watch and live a beautiful love story with
me, then simply switch channel to the Inner
Child channel. You and I can get to know each
other and then we can have some fun as well as
some love and peace together.
"You probably don't even know where
I am. Well, that's because I'm scared of
you and I've been hiding. I would suggest
you tame me, just as if you were dealing with
a scared kitten. Just imagine that your inner
child is a scared kitty hiding under the bed.
What do you do? Well maybe you start talking
gently and lovingly to it even though you can't
see it. And then maybe you bring it a saucer
of warm milk (for me a saucer of unconditional
love will do), and then you back off a little
and keep talking softly.
"After a while, I may peek around the
corner to make sure that you are really for
real and that you won't judge me and
criticize me again... after all, you have done
that a lot. And if I feel that you are really
ready to love me and be nice to me, I'll
come out and we can talk and play.
"Another way that you can get in touch
with me is to listen to what you call your
intuition. Lots of times that is me telling
you what would be great for us. So the next
time you feel that it would be good for you to
go for a walk, or to sing out loud, or to
dance... pay attention. That's probably me
making my presence known. And the more you
spend time doing the kind of things that I
like, the more you will start feeling me
there, and enjoying our time together.
"And keep talking to me. Soon you'll
start hearing me. You see, I talk very softly
cause I'm little and sometimes I'm scared
of you cause you're big and you talk loud
and gruff. So listen softly, and then you'll
hear me. And remember I love you and I really
want to spend time with you. And I know that
once you start spending time with me, you'll
be much happier than you are now. You'll
find yourself singing and maybe even taking
silly little dance steps in the street. And
the people around you will start smiling for
no apparent reason when you walk by, because
their own inner child will recognize me and
will also pop up to the surface.
"Can I come out and play? I love you a
whole bunch! I hope you'll come visit often
and invite me to hang out with you a lot too!
We can really have a great time together, you
and I."
With Love,
Your Inner Child |
