What we learn but seem to forget

When you look inside your heart, do you find when you are snippy and negative and ugly to another person? I find that my heart is not right, and my inner condition is probably not in very good shape. Our world seems to be lacking in heart the welfare of other people around us. We all have struggles in the same realm. Put aside get rid of malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy and slander. Actually Robert Fulghum could not have said it better; this came from the Kansas City Times in 1986.

ALL I EVER REALLY NEED TO KNOW

I LEARNED IN KINDERGARTEN!

Most of what 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 the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things 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 play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon. When you go out into the world, watch for

traffic, hold-hands, and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little

seed in the plastic 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

plastic cup---they all die. So do we.

And then remember the book about Dick and Jane and the first word you

learned, the biggest word of all: Look. Everything you need to know is in there

somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation, ecology and politics

and sane living.

Think of what a better world it would be if we all--the whole world--had

cookies and milk about 3 o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our

blankets for a nap. Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to

always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And

it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best

to hold hands and stick together.

This goes right along with what you learn in the Martial arts is so important.

Sifu Hayes

www.silentriverkungfu.com Stony Plain, Alberta, Canada

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