Love Yourself

What a difference a day makes!

Last time I checked, it was November 30th and I had gone two solid months posting a blog every day. And then...

Well my blogging bottom fell out!!

Coincidentally, (ironically, Alanis?) I got my internet access checked and repaired on Tuesday, December 1, and haven't been back.

Sorry about that...

I was a little busy last week and away from home most nights and I felt that my more-than-occasional "phone blogs" of October and November were pretty lacking. So I decided that unless I could flesh something out at my computer, I wouldn't write.

Well that was a huge mistake. At least I didn't make it, "Unless I can flesh something GOOD out at my computer, I won't write." Might as well shut the darn thing down...

I've had a rough couple days and only today discovered that they miiiiight be coinciding with my menstrual cycle. (Listen, I told you the Crimson Tide blog wouldn't be about it, I never said I wouldn't mention it again). I've spent the last two days wondering if I just checked out on some basic socialization lessons in nursery school and kindergarten. And that of course, led me to Robert Fulghum's 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 the sand pile at 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 in 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.

Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk at about 3 o'clock in the 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 in the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together."

While I love this and think there's great wisdom and whimsy in it, I have to say that I guess I didn't miss out. The lessons I didn't learn weren't covered in kindergarten. Not sure when or how I was supposed to pick them up. So I'll have to take a deep breath and try -- once again -- to teach them to myself. I'm stronger on some than others, but I could use a little reminder on all:

Trust in others and yourself.

Be energized by the unknown, not rattled.

Embrace change.

Be a liquid, not a solid.

No good can come from insecurity.

Jealousy is insidious.

You have value and worth.

Don't live expecting the other shoe to drop.

Listen to your instincts.

Love yourself.



Goodnight all, maybe I'll see you tomorrow, maybe I won't...but regardless,

To be continued..........