My daughter’s kindergarten teacher is amazing. I mean her patience and ability to manage her class of littles remotely, is beyond my comprehension. I mean, she is my living hero. It is almost like watching Cinderella in action if she were a teacher. I can even almost see the birds chirping around her head and the magical music playing behind her. And when she talks, I have to remind myself that she isn’t actually singing her lessons in a Disney tune, because I swear it is as if rainbows fly from her mouth every time she speaks. So again, SHE IS AMAZING!
And guess what, apparently, she is also teaching me. Many things in fact like patience, tricks to getting the littles to engage and pay attention, and how to be strict without yelling through the house like I feel I do far too often. There is one thing in particular though that she has really taught me, and I am going to try and take it and apply it in just about all facets of my life. Thing is…she stole it too, from a classic Disney movie.
From the first day of class, she kept repeating again and again throughout the day, ‘Hakuna Matata – No Worries Class – it will be okay’. When the littles had computer glitches, she repeated it. When students couldn’t find a certain material needed for math or reading, she repeated it and said they could easily follow along with her. When students interrupted to ask to use the ‘potty’, she repeated it and emphasized that they needn’t worry that they would miss something. When a student apologized in tears because they were five minutes late to log back into the class, she repeated it again.
These little minds take little mistakes or glitches in life so seriously. And guess what, so do I. But at the end of the day, being five minutes late if you can’t help it, is Okay, and it is so not worth letting it get you all riled up and stir up a butt load of anxiety.
You know that saying, ‘why cry over spilled milk’? Yeah, I had a spilled milk moment this morning. Well, more like an entire bowl of Cheerios spilled on the carpet and even splashed all over the walls. It sucked, clearly. Yes, my carpet may end up smelling just a bit if I didn’t get it all up properly, it took far too much energy than I had to give this morning, and timing wise, we were already in a rush. But, although all of those things made me want to say a few choice words, at the end of the day, it is… just… spilled… milk. Ummmpphhhh….phhhhhhh…Hakuna Matata and breathe.
The thing is, life is too short, and life is hard enough as it is. But perception is everything and so is how you handle the hard times and let’s be honest, the ‘not that big of a deal’ times. If you can ‘woo-saw’ and breathe your way through the really tough times than you can ‘Hakuna Matata’ your way through the little things in life that really, you shouldn’t allow to stir you up anyway. And I am not preaching to the choir here, I am really trying to preach this to myself. With Lymes Disease, anxiety is already a symptom I deal with. I do not need to add any extra crap to my plate.
And then there is the fact that we have far too much to worry about these days anyway, from the political shit storm we are in the middle of, to this crazy Covid and Flu Season looming around the corner, to let the little shit take over. It is so hard, I know. It really is. With stress and anxiety already up because of the previously mentioned, it escapes without us even realizing it when the little things happen because we are trying to hold it together on the big things. But if we can all take it all the way back to kindergarten, I think, just maybe, we will get through this shit storm that is 2020.
So, my new philosophy, the one I am going to work really, really hard at adopting, is just a little bit of Hakuna Matata. It means no worries, no worries for the rest of your days.
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