Lil' Monkey

Most of us are inherently fond of little children.  They carry with them love and warmth.  They bring about joy, cheer, hope and a future worth looking forward to.  The birth of a child brings about many things: new beginnings, new found appreciation for our parents, belief in a higher power, the virtue of patience and the vulnerability that we don't control everything after all.  In addition to some of life's greatest lessons, a child teaches us many simple things.... 

A child teaches us to love without prejudice, to forgive without seeking vengeance, to overlook imperfections, to find blissful joy in a sandbox and to enjoy life without peer pressures and ego-hassles.  Cognitively speaking their cranial neurons have not formed enough connections to recognize stress, fear competition or prepare for achieving perfection.  As such they can giggle and laugh and 'monkey' around without a care in the world.  Over the years as the burden of responsibility, social competition or financial goals hit our lives we tend to lose that carefree attitude but somewhere somehow that little monkey never dies from our heart and soul.  This is perhaps why people tend to act inappropriately under toxication or extreme power. Scientific terms call it 'amygdala hijack'. 

Whatever be the neurological reason behind our actions/words, I still believe that in order to stay young we must keep that lil' monkey alive in us.  Every so often (be it on vacation or when we are not prone to causing harm onto others) we ought to let the child in us come out and enjoy life without a care in the world; we ought to skip and jump and add vigour back to our otherwise serious routine of life. Go ahead, run barefeet in the grass, bike to your nearest park and lay under the tree with the sun shining through, float a few paper boats in the nearest puddle or wade through a stream of cold, clear water.  I guarantee you that the lil' monkey in your heart will thank you for it.

An eggless chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling was draped in antique white fondant to grace this baby shower occasion.  Atop the cake sat a completely edible little monkey in an all edible crib (sans the ribbons). Welcome little one to your special family...