So Maarten is now officially seven years old. Yesterday we celebrated his birthday in style, and after stuffing ourselves with lots of cake and letting the kids run around the house like complete maniacs, we drove to "de Sniep" which is a tropical swimming pool nearby. Where do those kids get all their energy from? Constantly moving, running, jumping, climbing. Non-stop. Thea and I just sat there calmly in our plastic chairs like good parents should, pretending to have the situation completely under control, at least being available for personal conflicts and other so-called emergencies. I figured that if one were to harness the energy from all the kids that afternoon, then you could probably have enough to light up the town of Gouda for a couple of days, at least. As adults we have lost much of this youthful spontaneity, carelessness, just being naive and unknowing. We are all just children of artless grace and simple goodness. To be more accurate, I should say that this is true only on the outside. Within each of us there still lives in one form or another that child we once were in the distant past. Some people are more sensitive to this presence than others.
