Do you know what it's like to have no barriers?

Do you know what it's like to have no barriers?
I was at the climbing gym today, in between climbs I was sitting on the floor stretching and this 6 year old boy who was there for a birthday party comes over to me and squats down so he can look into my face and with the most genuine concern says to me "What happened?!" ...I could see it looking like there was something really wrong as I was not sitting in any normal position, it could look like at was crumpled up on the ground and had gotten hurt. I laughed and told him I was just stretching. And he said "Oh Ok!" with big grin and then bounced off to be with his friends. It really struck me the level of vulnerability, kindness, and presence that this kid had. He didn't have any barriers, and there was really no judgment in his world about coming up to me, a total stranger, to be sure I was ok. He was so totally willing to be himself. It's a rare thing to see in kids and especially adults. We are taught to keep our distance. Most of us have barriers of one kind or another... by this I mean most of us are protecting ourselves in one way or another... mostly it's just from the judgments we expect to get from the world around us and are trying to avoid. Which means we already have those judgments of ourselves and are expecting the world to confirm what we were already judging about ourselves, and are defending against at the same time.) And in this we stop being ourselves. There is an energy that gets created in this, it's a retraction, and a wall and most people walk around with that all the time, not realizing that they are doing it, or knowing how to change it... AND not realizing how much of the rest of the world they are shutting out. This kid melted me. And it made me wonder what the world would be like if we would all let down our barriers and be that much presence as ourselves, that much kindness to each other without a second thought. It would be a different planet!

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