Perhaps we should envy children

Little witch
Originally uploaded by donaldtownsend.

Children in our modern world live lives bare of any responsibilities. They are just children free to play, to dream, to rove around, to meet friends, to laugh, to forget, to grow, to mature, to weep and to be children.
These wee creatures are spared what might make an adults life miserable. No burdens to carry their day starts when they get up and ends when they turn in. There is no tomorrow to mind and no yesterday to worry about. Life moves on as an endless sequence of days.
Children are full of boundless energy. When they awake in the morning they are spring-loaded, ready for action and it takes many hours to tire them out. When they do sports they need no warm up. Jumping and running seems to cost no effort.
Of course children can be sad and there are days when life is not nice. Illness and loss make themselves felt, but mostly not for long. Their unhampered optimism and naivety leave no room for enduring unhappiness.
To be honest, this is not a very realistic picture of childhood. It's nothing more than a memory with the ugly bits blocked out, a myth, however a nice one.