Questions that came up...
How do you feel?
Do you feel any older?
Do you feel any wiser?
To tell you the truth I feel amazing. There's a lot of really wonderful things going on in my life right now and I think as I get older I can approach and appreciate these things completely and without some of the distractions of my youth. So far (hahaha knock on wood)... life seems to get better with age... sure I notice a few more wrinkles... my hips and feet ache more frequently... hangovers last a little longer... but I like the experience that comes with this journey I'm on. Of course there are the ups and downs but I'm hoping that I'm a little bit more level headed about decisions and reactions. I also feel that as I get older the more I crave simplicity in my everyday life. It's all about the little things in life... all those little bits that make up the big picture for me...
I did a lot of things for the first time this year... a lot of things that terrified me...
A little recap perhaps?
*got on stage at a strip club for the first time
*made some new friends
*got stoned with some co-workers
*rode on the back of a motorcycle for the first time
*lived on my own for the first time
*kissed a boy with a girlfriend
*stood up for 2 of my closest friends
*applied for a more challenging job and got it
*moved across the country to a city I had never been to
*drove across Canada with a girl I met the night before
*fell in love
*waited for a man worth waiting for (yes you ding dong)
*learned how to be ok eating by myself at a restaurant
*took out one of my oldest piercings and 3 others
*applied for another job that terrifies me [haven't heard anything yet.. :( ]
*a few other things that i can't tell you about but they were fun... trust me... hahahahahahah
I'm very proud of myself for doing quite a few things that scared me this year. I also like that I think with this "aging" business I'm becoming more honest with myself when I need something to change. Acknowledging it is half the battle... the rest is growing the balls to follow through and accepting the consequences of that.
Yadda yadda yadda...
Anyway... I read this book close to 15 years ago.. lent my copy of it to someone and never got it back. So yesterday when we were in the used bookstore... I was stoked to find a copy of it for $1.87. It's called All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum. I think he's a pastor or preacher of some sort but his "credo" is solid and I wanted to share it.
"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 the sandpile at Sunday 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 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.
And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books 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 equality and sane living.
Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated 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 of what a better world it would be if we 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 governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.
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."
Fingers crossed for another wonderful and healthy year. It's started off pretty good so far.
xo
not too bad for 26 eh?
;)
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