Child at Heart

The other day I connected with a friend I hadn’t seen in several years.  I had forgotten his ways and was totally taken aback by his exuberance.  By nature he’s an extrovert with a big personality and I was more than enfolded — I was literally engulfed — in his delight at seeing me.  It was an amazing feeling being greeted like this and I got to thinking about the joyful abandon that most people lose over the years and how we learn to minimize emotion.  This man has allowed very few filters between himself and the world.  He’s not suffering from dementia, he doesn’t have a medical condition, he hasn’t been told he only has a certain number of months or years to live, he hasn’t just entered a program for addiction . He just is the way he is.  I don’t know many people who have carried such a childlike, unbridled joy and delight into their sixties and seventies or beyond.  It was a life affirming experience spending time with him.