Growing Up

A letter to me from an eleven-year-old girl posed the question, "How can I remain a child forever and not grow up?"

I wrote back, "I don't think you can, and I don't think it would be a good idea if you could. What you can do, and what I hope you will do, is remain a child forever, and grow up, too."

That is what it means to be a whole human being, rather than an isolated fragment of our own chronology.

Madeleine L'Engle