The Child Inside Us!

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What matter is with you? Regina, my wife, asked me a few days ago. I looked at her with confusion and asked what she meant. She said she was referring to my lack of enthusiasm towards my work; I used to be excitedly busy with my WordPress and would run to my room every morning to write a new story, but she noticed that I had lost that passion lately. After considering this, I had to admit that she was right. I seem to be losing the drive and motivation to create new stories. As I analysed myself, like so often I do, I have noticed that I am (too much) involved in very high themes with such great individuals like Dr Jung, Nietzsche, Gibran, etc., and I feel a bit exhausted, “intermingle with the greats is not everybody’s job!”

Hercules and the Lernaean Hydra, 1875-1876, by Gustave Moreau – Art Institute of Chicago

I believe that one’s expectations are crucial in determining success. I have noticed that with each article I write, I tend to push myself to do better and aim higher, which might be good. (I must thank YOU, all my lovely friends, who inspired me so much).🙏💖🙏
But, I have also realized that sometimes I may have gone too far, just like Icarus, whose wings melted in the sun’s rays and fell. This is where the book ‘Great Expectations’ by Charles Dickens becomes relevant. We must be honest with ourselves and know where we stand.
Ultimately, happiness is not an unachievable goal but a state of inner peace and calmness.

Hence, I decided to come down and take it more easily. Although this new post is from Nietzsche, as I stumbled upon lately, it is a short text and relevant today: losing the child inside us! This child gives us the imagination to have fantasies. Nietzsche noticed it centuries ago, and it is didactic.

Artwork at the top: Farzad Golpayegani – Beautiful Bizarre artist directory

Illustration by
Akira Beard

The Free Spirit, from Beyond Good and Evil, par. 31, by Friedrich Nitzsche

I had to work on translation to make Nietzsche’s complex grammar more understandable!😉

At a young age, one worships and despises without that art of nuance, which is the best gain in life, and one has to pay a fair amount of punishment for having attacked people and things with Yes and No in this way. Everything is set up so that the worst of all tastes, the taste for the unconditional, is cruelly fooled and abused until people learn to put a little art into their feelings and rather dare to try something artistic, like the right ones do Artists of Life do. The anger and awe that characterizes youth does not seem to rest until it has manipulated people and things so that it can be vented on them – youth is itself something more counterfeit and deceitful. Later, when the young soul, tormented by loud disappointments, finally turns back suspiciously on itself, still hot and wild, even in its suspicion and remorse: How angry they are now, tearing themselves apart impatiently, how taking revenge for their long self-delusion as if they had been voluntary blindness! In this transition, one punishes oneself by distrusting the feelings; one tortures one’s enthusiasm through doubt; one even feels one’s good conscience as a danger, as it were as a self-concealment and a weariness of one’s finer honesty; and above all, they take orientation, fundamentally oriented against ‘youth’. – A decade later, they realize that all of this was still -youth!

38 thoughts on “The Child Inside Us!”

  2. In pure synchronicity, this week I have been re-reading John Bradshaw’s book ‘Homecoming’ which is all about championing and reclaiming our ‘Inner Child’. The work is deep and long yet ultimately liberating as my soul, even after a few days of study and working through the suggested exercises, began to feel much lighter.

    This ‘Inner Work’ is so important to me, at times moreso than the ‘Outer Work’! Thank you so much Aladin for sharing your thoughts and reflections today on this very important subject. Great art! Love and light, Deborah.

    Liked by 3 people

  4. I really like this post, Aladdin. My experience with writing my blog is similar to yours. After writing two posts a week for years, and then one post a week, and now even less, I’ve finally stopped pushing myself to meet a self-imposed deadline and am allowing myself to rest, read, and give more time to other needs and interests. Like you, I’ve aimed high and pushed myself to learn more. In my case my interest has been in knowing more about myself and the feminine principle in our world and to share what I’ve learned with others; all while writing my last two books. I was passionate about this work and still am. One of the best things to come from it has been connecting with a group of equally inspired and motivated internet friends. You know who they are. You’re one of them.

    But now my enthusiasm and motivation to write and post my work on social media has waned. At first I worried about this, but now I realize it’s natural. I’m always changing and so is the world, and there’s nothing any of us can do about that. It’s the way we evolve. So as long as I’m following the path my inner guide, the Self, is prompting me to take, there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m still following my own light on my own evolutionary path.

    Sending my best wishes to you as you continue to follow yours. I’m so glad our paths have crossed for this part of our journeys. 😊 🙏 Jeanie. P.S. Ironically, writing this post to you may have motivated to share these same thoughts on my blog! We’ll see.

    >

    Liked by 3 people

    • I must consider this: if we were twins and separated once in the past! You take every word from my mouth, my lovely teacher. Honestly, my place on your friend’s list is one of my reasons to keep going.
      In the second paragraph of your comment, I would say, for you, my excellent teacher, you have left lots of brilliant teaching, which one has the “golden flower”, and they are enough to work with. I have, for example, understood Carl Jung much easier when I read and listened to your words.
      And in the third, wait! I have to dry my eyes to see the surface…! So, I just want to admit your feelings about our meeting paths; in my life, it couldn’t have happened more beautifully than these crossing lines. And your next blog will be my next learning book.🤗💖💖🙏🌹🌟💥💖🙏🦋

      Liked by 1 person

  7. elainemansfield

    As I read this, I thought of our teacher Dr. Jung and remembered him building stone structures and the castle he called Bollingen Tower–mixed with heavy philosophical and psychological work. I remembered going to Bollingen and then later practicing sandtray as my own attempt to create a place for the child within. It’s wonderful to read this piece and to be back after a long illness, knowing that I, too, must and will find a better way to always remember and nurture the child within. Thank you, Aladin. I search for a balance between inner peace and tending our suffering world.

    Liked by 2 people

  8. Right now – and maybe forever – chronic illness limits both my ability to read and understand AND my interest in more elevated or esoteric topics; if the medical profession can’t provide any relief, it’s not going to get better.

    So I will possibly comment on the easier topics if I have anything contributory – usually from before 1989 – or not be able to.

    Any time there IS energy, it goes to MY writing because my legacy project is going to take at least another few years, and it takes many times longer to get back to writing from losing focus that for normal people.

    When there is limited ability, priorities matter. Not lack of maybe wanting to, but definitely lack of being able to.

    I’m ALREADY 74 – time’s running out.

    Pray they 1) solve long covid, and 2) the solution also applies to other possibly post-viral illnesses in people who have been sick for decades; both of these are very large asks.

    Meanwhile, I have to prioritize my time, or get NOTHING accomplished.

    Liked by 2 people

    • First, I am so sorry for your suffering, dear Alicia. It tears my heart apart and makes me sad.
      For sure, it is the priority in the first place, and for a writer like you, it is writing. I would be glad if you succeed because it will give you strength.
      I will reach the gate of the seventies in summer, and I wonder, too, how the time is running out. However, my prayers are going for you and your recovery. May the medical science get so far that it solves your pain.

      Like

      • Thanks. But I look neither for sympathy, nor particularly for hand-wringing: what is one’s fate, is. It isn’t Why me? but Why NOT me? for what befalls humanity.

        I write these comments because the able-bodied should know and understand that their own default point of view is not the whole story.

        And even more, that becoming ill or disabled, while burdensome (we could really use a lot more accessibility designed into buildings and public spaces from the beginning, rather than added on), is NOT the end of the world. That people can and do continue on with their lives and loves, or start new ones, and that those who write about it are documenting a foreign land the now-well may need to visit some day.

        The question I have is: does this make my writing better or different, and how, and does it help build empathy in readers that will make THEM better or different?

        And if it doesn’t, merely by design, can humans MAKE it that way, for the benefit of other humans. Storytelling has always had its element of forewarning. I attempt to do this AND to be subtle and not preachy about it.

        It has been more than 34 years so far – ‘medical science’ ignored many of us for a long time because they couldn’t find easy answers; they’re barely starting to believe we’re not somehow doing this to ourselves because of laziness or entitlement. If healing comes, I will be ecstatic, of course, but it is more important to me what I do, if I can, before that. And that I find and deal with the limitations as well as possible. In the NOW. Forgive the diatribe – and, by the way, the 70s are potentially your most fertile decade. Enjoy them.

        Liked by 1 person

      • I understand you, though I can’t avoid my empathy! I would only like to share this poem with you; it is an old and wise one I recently read from an adorable friend’s post.🙏💖
        The Guest House

        This being human is a guest house.
        Every morning, a new arrival.
        A joy, a depression, a meanness,
        some momentary awareness comes
        as an unexpected visitor.
        Welcome and entertain them all!
        Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
        who violently sweep your house
        empty of its furniture,
        still treat each guest honourably.
        He may be clearing you out
        for some new delight.
        The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
        Meet them at the door, laugh, and invite them in.
        Be grateful for whatever comes.
        Because each has been sent
        as a guide from beyond.

        — Rumi

        Like

  9. Thank you for this timely reminder Aladin about the importance of nurturing our inner child. I have been so busy working on a large batch of photographs that I started to feel disconnected, losing the joy in creating and hadn’t been finding time for other things to bring about balance. And then I was reminded by a certain person about the need to PLAY – and so I have walked away from this massive task for a few days and just enjoyed the beauty and wonder of nature which is helping me to regain my enthusiasm for the creative task ahead.

    Liked by 2 people

    • That’s wonderful! I’m almost convinced we should take this break seriously to find balance. It will help us understand our environment better. I am glad you captured it at the right time. Thank you, lovely Lin, for your kind and wise words.🙏💖💥

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Pingback: The Child Inside Us! – Glyn Hnutu-healh: History, Alchemy, and Me

  12. Short, and informative. Fabulous.

    Don’t stress yourself, Alaedin! Whatever you offer is interesting.

    LOL… It sounds like you have been in competition with yourself. I know this, as I have been guilty of the same.

    The main thing that stands out in what I read is “Art”, “Artists”.

    Yes, writing is an art. You do this well. Don’t burn out!

    You are not selling anything here. Money is not your objective for blogging. Therefore enjoyment and social interaction is the deal.

    Nor in the mood, so what? I blog when I’m in the mood and excited. This is not a job.

    Take care may friend!

    💓🎨🌹🎨❦❦❦

    Liked by 2 people

  13. tx much for visiting my site. I love anything to do with books & would be thrilled if you’d write a guest blog post for my site, which is for anyone who enjoys writing, or books, and all the arts. If you think it might be fun or helpful to have my followers (who total about 10k across my various social media) meet you, here’s the link for general guidelines: https://wp.me/p6OZAy-1eQ – best, da-AL

    Liked by 1 person

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