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What's in your Dish? Down Dog Yoga's Patty Ivey asks...

Remember when you were five years old and life seemed so magical? Every day was filled with a sense of wonder.

A time when you believed that anything was possible.

As kids, we believe in everything and everyone. We believe in the tooth fairy. We believe that there's a jolly man, who is making a list – with our name on it - and checking it twice!! We even believe in a giant bunny who spends his Easter Eve delivering baskets of goodies while we are sleeping.

A perfect and private world of exploration where questions spring simply from curious delight and doubt or distrust has no place. Armed only with blind faith and hope, we could dream our wildest dreams, and believe in all our imagination had to offer.

As children we believe in everything and everyone until proven otherwise.

Yet as adults, it’s exactly the other way around. We grow up, become experts in our fields, and start trying to keep up with what seems more like a “Rat Race” rather than our life, suspecting everyone and doubting everything. Even when proven, we still offer our faith reluctantly.

Why is it that as we grow up, we learn to rely on knowing more and yet believe less?

When exactly do we outgrow our sense of wonder, right along with our swing sets, and allow our ability to blindly believe disappear?

So, I've decided… I wanna be five again. I want to applaud each marvel, delight in the extraordinary and hunger for all of the good in life. I want dream and dream big.

I want to never stop believing that on this journey I can take that midnight train to anywhere.

How about you?

-- by Patty Ivey

Patty Ivey, co-founder of Down Dog Yoga in Georgetown, Bethesda and Herndon, lives in the West Village with her husband Scott and their small animal kingdom including two cats, Lucas and Lulu, and two dogs, Coco and Elijah.