"inner child"

The child within everyone ... the inner child....

Shrinks use the term "inner child" to refer to unresolved and sometimes painfully-lingering issues.

Self-helpers use the term to refer vaguely to that which is unfettered and imaginative and trusting and playful and wide open as a barn door. The "inner child" is not the one crucified on the cross of stale and confining adult compromises and closed-off possibilities. S/he's as tail-waggy as a puppy.

A person of 80 can cry out as easily as a child, "whose beloved am I?" It is a piercing wail.

A person of 80 can giggle like a child at the wonders of finger paints... for no reason at all ... just because ....

Good child, bad child, happy child or sad ... it's good to hold and rock and love our children.