麻豆约拍

From Sarah Joseph, Editor of Emel, the Muslim lifestyle magazine:

听

鈥淚f at first you don鈥檛 succeed, pack your bags.鈥� says a tearful Aubrey听 - a central character in the musical comedy film Pitch Perfect. She is referencing her father鈥檚 less than inspirational advice. Audrey is an uptight character who you don鈥檛 really get to like until the end of the film, when we finally understand that it was her father鈥檚 impossible expectations that turned her into an anxious, and uninspiring, drill-sergeant.

听听
We all know the proper adage, and were probably told it as a child, 鈥淚f at first you don鈥檛 succeed, try, try again.鈥� But trying again and again in the face of failure is not always easy.

There are many days when we don鈥檛 succeed and would prefer to stay in bed, protected by the duvet, from life鈥檚 continuous demands. There are many days when to try again seems ridiculously hard, and quite frankly not worth the effort involved.

Yet somehow the human spirit is evoked.

If you have ever watched a child learn to walk, you would have seen the pause and slightly stunned expression, as they fall on their bottom for the umpteenth time, yet there is never a point when they give up. There is something internal which drives the process.

Not giving up is a lesson that a small child teaches us, but there are many things we can learn. Paulo Coelho says, 鈥淎 child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.鈥�

I think he鈥檚 right, although there are many more things a child can teach 鈥� dreaming big for one. Small children are not limited by all the reasons that things can鈥檛 be done. In their imagination the world can be conquered, the impossible can be achieved.

I love being in the company of small children. There is something inspirational about them. I love their quirks of imagination, their pottering about, their demands, their laughter, their lack of respect for the way things have to be.

As a child I dreamed I would create a much better world. I can remember with vivid clarity the hopes and ambitions of making the world a better place.

Life tires you. Life certainly knocks the wind from your sails. Yet it is worth reclaiming the strength and clarity of one鈥檚 childlike qualities. There is something powerful; magical even, about the lessons of a child.