As we grow up, life seems to become more and more complicated. Problems in our life and the world around us seem to grow at rapid paces, and it's hard to get a grip on control of things. We lose sight of the things that really matter, and forget the important life lessons we learned when we were younger.
Digging through my closet tonight, I stumbled upon a poster I received when I graduated kindergarten about 15 years ago. What was on this poster though really took me by surprise. It's filled with very important lessons that everyone needs to remember and practice. Here is what the poster read:
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN
All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate school mountain, but there in my classroom at school. These are the things that I learned.
Share everything.
Play fair.
Don't hit people.
Put things back where you found them.
Clean up your own mess.
Don't take things that aren't yours.
Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Flush.
Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
Live a balanced life- learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and work everyday some.
Take a nap every afternoon. (as a college student I stress this one)
When you go out into the world watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.
Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why but we are all like that.
Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
Remember to look around you.
Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.
Take any of those items and extrapolate it into sophistical adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if all- the whole world- had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all government had a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
And it is all still true, no matter how old you are - when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.
