As children, we are all innocent.
We are born to a clean slate, unaware of how the world is.
Over time, we all begin to lose that innocence.
Sometime traumatically, sometimes gradually.
Day by day we experience life and society in a way that drains our belief in the goodness of others.
It could come from a close friend or a relative.
Perhaps someone in authority abuses that authority and we at the receiving end of that abuse.
The biggest loss of innocence comes when we realize that our parents are not gods and are not perfect.
The people in our life that we once trusted, betray our trust and a little piece of our spirit wanes with that betrayal.
It can come in many different forms, in many different ways.
In the end, it all adds up to one thing, our individual loss of innocence.
We no longer see the world through the eyes of wonder.
Fear begins to creep in and become the unseen hand that guides our choices.
We go from being free-spirited, loving people to feeling beaten up all the time.
Not only to learn not to trust other people but soon we learn not to trust ourselves.
The world goes from being a wondrous and adventure filled place to a dark and dangerous place.
Our life, which once held so much promise, becomes one of compromise and making do.
Until that day when someone or something calls us back to childhood.
To what innocence really looks like.
To the purity that still lies dormant within our hearts.
Where our inner-child still lives.
And slowly, with a lot of tears, we begin to explore what happened.
How did we lose our innocence?
When did things get off track?
As we piece together the trail our life took, we learn to have more compassion for ourselves.
To find the way back home, gently and softly.
Perhaps it was that look in a child’s eye that we caught a glimpse of.
Maybe we see a big of magic in the world that we never knew existed.
And it calls to us.
As it awakens our heart.
And while the innocence that was lost can never truly return, a new innocence emerges.
One that comforts us and reminds us that there are still dreams to be dreamed.
That possibilities do abound.
That there is innocence in our life, if we have eyes to see it.
~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant
