Forehhhhhvvver young, I want to be, forever young

Do you ever really, really wish you were young again?

We watched home videos from childhood tonight.  My youngest sister is obsessed with these-- she can say what's going to happen and where all the funny parts are in each scene of the tape --that's how much she loves them.  I didn't think I'd watch because I tend to have this burning desire to be productive with everyone second of the day (except when I kill excessive amounts of time on the intraweb), but I saw just a little bit and got suckered into two hours of laughing, laughing, and lots of reminiscing.  I don't know how in the world my parents put up with such an imaginative, controlling, and very loud kid, but it sure looked like I enjoyed it.
And that just makes me think of how different life was then.  I spent every single day hanging out with my siblings, most of the time playing "Let's pretend..." or any assortment of creative activity.  Life was so carefree.  And fun.  It just looks...beautiful.  Plus, I was actually kind of cute for a little bit back then, if I dare say that about myself.  Mostly just in pictures, though.  On video, the demeanor kind of overrides the cuteness.
Fast forward to now after rewinding to then.  Life is stressful, full of big decisions, big responsibilities, big everything.  Yeah, there's great things we can do and fun times we have that we can't when we're young, but when we're young, we're so caught up in living that most of the time we forget about everything else.  Our whole lives are ahead of us, and our dreams can literally stretch just as far as our imaginations.  Those dreams of being an NBA star from small-town nowhere are fed with every basketball that slips through the rusted rim clamped to our garage.  Those dreams of being an archaeologist finding the latest discovery from eons ago are kept alive every time an old silver spoon is discovered and dug out of the lawn.  The possibilities are limitless in our minds, even if not in real life.  The only rationale for pursuing anything is because we want to.  We are not held back by anything but our age, and we don't hold ourselves back by what we can or cannot do.  Life is beautiful.
Life is still beautiful today, but I feel as though we often glimpse it through a pane tainted by reality's setbacks and troubles.  Sometimes, though, these problems only enhance the beauty we experience.  But our eyes never return to that innocent view of the glorious world we live in.  Our lives can still be good, but our youth still remains unlike any other time of our lives.  Ecclesiastes 12  says

"Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near of which you will say, "I have no pleasure in them"

and while I don't think my life has no pleasure in it, I do know that I would love to return to that state of youth before some days became a chore and seemed to have the joy sucked out of them.  No matter, though, because I can't return.  I can only remember those days and try to  borrow a little joy from them for today and the future.  I can't wait to watch the kids I hopefully will have someday experience their youth so I can watch this phenomenon of youngness not in retrospect on a television, but in real time as they grow up and I get to be with them while they do it. 

Yeah, life isn't what it used to be, but I can dream about it, right?  When I invent a time machine I know where I'll be heading for a visit.