Editorial by Robert Kirwan

   
   November 20 is National Child Day. If you are like most parents you may take the position that “every day” is child day. When do we get a “National Adult Day”?

   Nevertheless, even though the designation of November 20 as National Child Day is part of an act of the Parliament of Canada that was passed in 1993 to draw attention to the rights of so many disadvantaged children in the world, it is a good time for parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and good friends to sit back and take a good long look at these “little people” who will soon become adults just like the rest of us.

   National Child Day is a time for us to celebrate children for who they are – right now!

   We can learn a lot from watching a child. One thing we learn is that for children, life is made up of individual moments, and the most precious of those moments is the one that is occurring now - in “real time”. Not yesterday’s or tomorrow’s moment, but the one that is happening right now!

   Children, especially young children, live in the present. They devote their entire energy to enjoying the best that the present has to offer. They do not let worries about the past bother them. Nor do they let concerns about the future get in the way of their savouring of the present moment. As I watch my granddaughter sitting quietly on the couch eating her “goldfish crackers” and drinking her “juice”, she could care less about what is on television, the toys strewn all over the living room floor or that it is almost bed time. She just calmly accepts that now is the time to simply enjoy her crackers and juice and nothing else matters.
  
   It’s is hard to imagine how children can be so wise at such a young age. And equally hard to understand how, as we grow older, we seem to lose a lot of that wisdom. For example, children seem to understand that life is a series of experiences, each important unto itself, and each deserving of one’s total attention. By devoting their energy to what they are doing at the moment, and then moving on with the same zestful approach to the next, children get the most out of everything they do and end up with the best chance of developing a very healthy personality and character. They show a lot of wisdom about how to get the most out of life and how to become the “best you can be”.
  
   So what happens to this wisdom as we grow older and become adults. Why do we keep worrying about what went on yesterday; what we are doing tomorrow; mistakes we have made in the past; and concerns about how we will manage tomorrow? How is it that we can be so wise as children and then as adults we forget how important it is to focus on the present?

   As adults we have the “intellectual capacity” to identify meaningful goals and plans for the future; to have routines that will ensure that our home is clean and orderly; to shop for nutritious food in order to prepare meals for our family; to find suitable employment in order to provide the basic necessities of survival; and to organize a stimulating environment for our children. And yet, we seem to lose some of the “wisdom” we had as a child. We lose the wisdom that helps us get the most out of what we do during the day; to go from one experience to another, allowing those experiences to add to our “total being” and help fulfill our basic human instinct to grow as individuals.

   And so, this weekend, I would urge all parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and adults everywhere to find one or more children and simply “be with them”, even if only for a short while. Learn all you can from them. Watch the “Dora” video for the 200^th time. Put the puzzle of the “wheat field” together for the 10^th time. Build the tower of blocks and knock them down ten or twenty times in a row, and laugh yourself silly with the child each time. And sit down once in a while on the couch to enjoy the “goldfish crackers” and “grape juice”.
  
   Do all of this and I guarantee that you will indeed feel as if you have just celebrated “National Adult Day”. I have to go now. My granddaughter wants to press the up and down arrows on the keyboard so that she can see pictures of her “Grandpa” on the computer screen.

   Have a good week!