Here Comes Treble: The Inner Child
...Inside everyone is the child they used to be, often hiding away beneath a façade of adulthood...
Isabel Bradley recognises the truth about our inner selves.
To read more of Isabel's perceptive and entertaining columns please click on Here Comes Treble in the menu on this page.
While editing an article about my father, I found myself fighting back tears. Dad died fourteen years ago. Every day the child within me cries for him.
When my uncle died recently, the child within me sobbed: she felt vulnerable because someone who knew her when she was still a child had left her world…
Inside everyone is the child they used to be, often hiding away beneath a façade of adulthood. This is the child we expect to see when we put on our make-up or shave in the mornings, rather than the adults we’ve become.
On many occasions throughout my life, my Inner Child has peered out at me, a shadow glimpsed in the mirror, a tug at my heart, a memory, a fluttering sensation deep within.
The lonely little girl, who lay in bed at night, eyes wide to the dark, desperate to know that Mom and Dad were near: she became a woman who lived through two impossible marriages before she found an all-encompassing, joyous love to keep her company through the long, dark nights.
The terrified child on her first morning at school: she fell in love with Teacher and Learning, and sits, watching with shining eyes. Now, the woman she has become writes and teaches.
The excited child who sat with her father, learning to play the piccolo: she is the confident woman on stage who plays the flute with such passion.
The innocent child who always tried to please everyone: she allowed a husband to blame her for all his faults, to abuse her – trying to please him; this child retreated to a place of safety, deep within, hiding from every emotion.
The fearless little ‘tightrope walker’ who tried all sorts of circus tricks at her friend’s house, chuckles at the woman she is: while hiking in the mountains, she scrambles on her derriére across glacial scree, terrified of falling between jagged rocks.
Our inner child is always there, laughing rapturously when we enjoy moments of silliness, forgetting our adult selves; or wailing and railing against our adult mistakes.
Each moment of joy and grief has created the adults we are. We can be proud of all we’ve achieved; we deserve to laugh and love, to let our Inner Child out to play with the ‘other children’.
Treated gently, our Inner Child can fill our lives with delight.
Until next week, ‘here comes Treble’!
By Isabel Bradley © copyright reserved
