Embrace the child within

Today I find myself with more things to accomplish than I have time to do. A myriad of tasks, each focused in different directions. A call to clean up a report. Another to review issues and items related to a completely different aspect of my job. Three speeches to give, none of which have been written yet and two luncheons (yes two) to get through. Plus the networking session tonight.

I look at this and all I can think of is - I don't want to. I don't want to be living in this grown-up world. I don't want to have all of this responsibility. I don't want to be straightening out what feels like other people's messes and I don't want to be cleaning up my own.

I just want to be a kid. I am not a fool, I realize that even as a child I thought there was plenty to do that I did not want to. It just all feels so much more complex and burdened now. As if the weight has gotten heavier, with more people expecting an ever increasing amount from me. And while I know I can live up to the expectations, I just plain don't feel like it. At least not today. I want to thumb my nose at all the requests and just run around the City. To go to the Libary of Congress and be amazed. To wander the central mall of our Nation's Capital and be in awe one more time of the architecture and the simple grandure of the gardens and stately trees. I want, I want, I want. -

It is simple really. Not complicated at all. Yet the wall stands. The people who make the demands are there. Their needs still call out, and what I want will fade in comparison to these stated needs. Because, I am, like it or not, an adult. Yuck.

How I long to just stand on the roof-top and scream "I WANT" and let the world in on my secret. But instead, I send this brief note out and will return to the duties at hand, with the small seed of hope that the end of the day will bring at least a few minutes of respite. A few minutes to gaze at the moon (and the stars if you could see them through the glare of the city lights) and find that child of mine - and set her free - if only for a moment or two.

Here's to the kid in all of us. Embrace them while we can.