REPOST: STOP TRYING SO HARD!

Okay, check this out. THIS is a link to a piece and a video of a 5 YEAR OLD BOY, Ariel Antigua, who can hit a major league fastball and field like a professional. He was featured on the cover of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED a while ago.

Think about it. Five! As in... years old!

In linear terms, no child of that age, so close to having been in diapers and fairly recently learned how to walk, can learn or develop through practice the ability to consistently hit a baseball coming at him at 85 miles an hour. The few grown ups who are able to do that are paid millions of dollars because the talent is so unique.

So, what does this tell us?

Whenever a child demonstrates these kinds of gifts - from Mozart (made his debut at 6 years old) to Bobby Fischer (U.S. chess champ at 14) to Wayne Gretzky (who was skating with 10-year-olds at the age of six) - we are amazed, and consider it an anomaly. But what if the presence of these kids among us is a message to all of us, one that is in fact relevant to all of us?

What if we all have a great gift inside of us waiting not to be developed by intense practice or hard work, but rather waiting simply to be channeled through us?

Children are naturally open channels to the spirit, and so through a child can come the magnificent expressions of our true nature. Unfortunately, parents and teachers and society at large do their unconscious best to try and close those channels in early childhood by forcing children to "work" instead of play, to sit still instead of move, to memorize facts instead of explore the world around them. And even worse than being forced to follow such spirit-crushing dictates, kids are forced to feed the hungry egos of said parents, teachers and society.

Okay, well, that damage done, you are an adult, now. You are your own parent, in a very real sense. That's great news! You can consciously reconnect to your soul, and the best way to do it is through the spirit of play, which is the way the soul does its "work."

Yes. Stop trying so hard to be someone or to be "good" at something, folks. You're already great! You already have amazing gifts to bring to this life, to this planet, to us all. If you stopped "working" at it, and started playing at it, you'd be laughing your way to the bank... or the major leagues!

Come on... let's play!