Lessons by the Lake

Fishing | Photo by Adeola Odubajo

This morning, beside quiet water and under an ordinary sky, I witnessed something extraordinary.

A group of boys — no older than seven to twelve — stood along the lakeside with fishing lines in their hands, worms carefully fixed to hooks, their eyes fixed on the water with absolute concentration. There was nothing glamorous about the scene. No audience. No cameras. No reward waiting beyond the simple possibility of catching fish.

And yet they were completely alive.

When I asked what they were doing, one of them answered with cheerful seriousness: “We’re trying to catch fishes.”

There was no irony in his voice, no self-consciousness, no performance. Only sincerity. They had chosen a task and given themselves fully to it.

Hours passed.

The fish did not come easily.

Still, their enthusiasm never faded.

They shifted positions. Recast their lines. Waited. Watched the water. Laughed among themselves. Remained absorbed in the mystery of possibility. They were not worried about time, productivity, failure, or whether anyone considered what they were doing important. They were simply present.

Then, just as I was about to leave — perhaps quietly assuming they would go home empty-handed — excited voices suddenly broke the stillness:

“Aunty! We caught two fishes!”

And before my eyes, another fish appeared. Then another.

Their faces lit up with triumph, joy, and wonder so pure it could not be imitated by adulthood. They had persisted long enough for life to answer them.

As I walked away, I could not stop thinking about how much humanity forgets as it grows older.

Explore — Nurturing My Inner Child

Perhaps some of the greatest lessons about being human are not learned in boardrooms, universities, or self-help books, but in moments like this — watching children stand beside water, teaching us how to live without even realizing it.

Photo by Adeola Odubajo

The Lost Art of Presence

Modern adulthood often feels like a constant negotiation with anxiety.

We worry about the future before it arrives. We replay mistakes from the past. We measure ourselves endlessly against others. Many people live trapped between regret and anticipation, rarely inhabiting the present moment fully.

Children, however, possess something many adults spend years trying to recover: immersion.

Those boys were not thinking about tomorrow’s pressures or yesterday’s disappointments. They were fully committed to the task before them. The water, the fishing lines, the waiting — that was their entire universe.

[embed]How to Pull Yourself Back Into the Present and Reclaim Your Peace medium.com

Psychologists sometimes refer to this state as flow: a condition in which a person becomes completely absorbed in an activity, losing track of time and self-consciousness. Research by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi showed that people often experience their deepest happiness not through passive consumption, but through meaningful engagement with the present moment.

Children enter this state naturally.

Adults often forget how.

We live in an age of distraction where attention is constantly fragmented. Notifications interrupt silence. Social media trains people to seek validation before experience itself. Even joy is often performed rather than lived.

But those boys fishing by the lake reminded me of something profound:

Life becomes richer when we stop performing it and start inhabiting it.

Children carefree by the lake | Photo by Adeola Odubajo

Humanity Begins with Wonder

There is a reason children are moved by things adults overlook.

A puddle.

An insect.

A bird feather.

A lakeside.

A riverbank.

A fishing line disappearing beneath water.

Children approach life with curiosity because they have not yet fully surrendered to cynicism. The world still feels alive to them. Mystery still exists.

As adults, many people become emotionally dulled by routine, disappointment, and pressure. We begin treating life as something to manage rather than experience. Wonder becomes replaced by efficiency.

Yet wonder may be one of the most essential human qualities we possess.

Albert Einstein once said, “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.” Wonder keeps the spirit awake. It invites humility. It reminds us that existence itself is astonishing.

Also read — It’s a Beautiful World: Exploring the Wonders of Our Planet

Those boys did not need expensive entertainment to feel fulfilled. A lake and possibility were enough.

And perhaps this reveals another painful truth about modern life: many adults have become materially overstimulated yet spiritually undernourished.

We have forgotten how little is actually required to experience joy.

Little is actually required to experience joy. And we can start by re-awakening our childlike wonder.

Persistence Before Reward

What struck me most was not simply that the boys eventually caught fish. It was their willingness to continue before success appeared.

Hours passed with no visible result.

Still they stayed.

How quickly adults abandon things when immediate reward does not arrive.

A dream takes too long, so we quit.

A challenge appears, and faith weakens.

One disappointment convinces us failure is permanent.

Many people surrender emotionally before life has even had time to respond.

Children often understand something adults forget: meaningful things require patience. They are willing to try repeatedly without turning every setback into a crisis of identity.

The boys did not interpret the absence of fish as proof that fishing was meaningless. They simply kept fishing.

There is profound wisdom in this.

Human growth rarely happens instantly. Relationships, healing, creativity, purpose, mastery — all require sustained faith before visible reward appears.

Nature itself teaches this truth constantly.

Seeds remain buried before blooming.

Lakes carve stone slowly.

Trees grow silently for years.

The human spirit also requires endurance.

And perhaps resilience is not always dramatic strength, but quiet persistence — returning again and again with hope still intact.

The Tyranny of Validation

One of the most beautiful aspects of those children was their complete lack of performance.

They were not fishing to impress anyone.

Not posting for approval.

Not turning experience into content.

Not calculating whether their activity appeared valuable to outsiders.

They were simply enjoying being alive together.

Learn to be fully alive in this wonderful creation, learn from children.

Modern culture often teaches people to seek external validation for every experience. Achievements become meaningful only if witnessed. Happiness becomes something displayed rather than deeply felt.

This constant need for approval slowly distances people from authentic living.

Children, before society fully conditions them, often possess freedom from this burden. They create, explore, imagine, and play for the joy of experience itself.

Happy children with their fish | Photo by Adeola Odubajo

Humanistic psychology has long emphasized that fulfillment emerges not from endless external praise, but from authenticity — from living in alignment with one’s inner experience and values.

The boys fishing by the lake were already practicing this naturally.

They did not need applause to justify joy.

Embracing the Inner Child

To embrace one’s inner child does not mean refusing adulthood or responsibility. It means preserving the qualities that make life meaningful before fear, shame, and social pressure bury them.

Curiosity.

Wonder.

Playfulness.

Presence.

Resilience.

Openness.

The ability to fail without becoming hopeless.

The ability to enjoy simple things deeply.

The inner child is not immaturity. In many ways, it is the purest form of humanity.

Carl Jung believed that within every adult remains the child they once were — carrying forgotten creativity, emotional truth, and vitality. Many people spend years disconnected from this part of themselves, believing seriousness alone equals maturity.

But a life entirely stripped of play becomes emotionally barren.

A person who cannot laugh freely, imagine freely, or experience wonder eventually begins merely surviving instead of truly living.

The children by the lake were not wasting time.

They were practicing life.

Embracing the inner child | Photo by Licensable

What Children Teach Us About Humanity

Watching them reminded me that some of humanity’s deepest truths become visible through children:

1. Presence creates joy.

Happiness often emerges not from possessing more, but from fully inhabiting the moment before us.

2. Persistence matters more than immediate success.

The boys caught fish because they stayed long enough for possibility to unfold.

3. Simplicity nourishes the soul.

A meaningful life is not always built from luxury, but from attention, connection, and wonder.

4. Community deepens experience.

Their excitement became greater because it was shared together.

5. Wonder keeps the human spirit alive.

Curiosity transforms ordinary moments into sacred ones.

6. Validation is not the same as fulfillment.

The most genuine joy often happens away from public attention.

The Tragedy of Growing Older

Perhaps the saddest part of adulthood is not aging itself, but forgetting.

Forgetting how to marvel.

How to play.

How to trust the process.

How to remain patient.

How to become absorbed in simple joys.

How to believe before results appear.

Society often rewards productivity while neglecting aliveness. Many adults become efficient but emotionally exhausted. They learn how to earn money, build careers, and maintain appearances, yet lose touch with the parts of themselves capable of deep joy.

And so, unexpectedly, wisdom returns through children.

Not because children know everything, but because they still inhabit life directly.

Living Fully Human

To be fully human is not merely to work, consume, achieve, and survive.

It is to remain emotionally awake.

To feel sunlight and actually notice it.

To become absorbed in meaningful moments.

To persist despite uncertainty.

To laugh freely.

To stay curious.

To care deeply without shame.

To approach life with enough openness that wonder can still enter.

The boys fishing by the lake may never realize the lesson they offered a passing stranger that afternoon. Yet their quiet devotion to the moment revealed something many adults desperately need to remember:

Life is not always asking us to rush.

Sometimes it asks us simply to stay.

To keep casting our lines into uncertain waters.

To believe before evidence appears.

To remain present long enough for beauty to arrive.

And perhaps that is what it truly means to live — not anxiously waiting for life to begin, but standing beside the lake wholeheartedly engaged with the miracle already unfolding before us.

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