Paint Like A Child

Chesky quotes Picasso: 'It took me four years to learn to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to learn to paint like a child.' Then he adds: 'I try to always see the world through the eyes of a child. A key characteristic of a child is curiosity. To see everything with fresh eyes. To not have too many judgments.'

We spend most of parenting trying to make our kids more adult. More capable. More sophisticated. We teach them to lose the 'childish' ways.

But Picasso spent a lifetime trying to recapture what we're busy stamping out. The curiosity. The fresh eyes. The willingness to see things without preconception.

Maybe instead of always trying to mature our children, we should occasionally let them mature us. Let them show us what we've forgotten. The wonder at ordinary things. The questions we stopped asking. The imagination we traded for 'realistic expectations.'

They're not just incomplete adults. They're experts in something we've lost.