Gratitude Practice 2021 Day 359: 100 Days of Kindergarten and the Power of Paper Crowns

Welp…. we've successfully made it through 100 days of kindergarten. Whew! We've never been more proud.

Grateful for today's happy celebration and for the excitement and level of serious-ness SK dedicated to her 100 Days of Kindergarten craft project. Lots of big thinking. Lots of brainstorming and carefully planning and endless counting...of course. She settled in on a poster with 100 pom poms...some pom pom became balloons and other pom pom just had to become fireworks...100 precious pom poms in total. It's quite a masterpiece that I'm sure will be floating around our house for months to come. I've discovered it's best if I "file away" her creations in the dark of night as every single creation is very very very important and special! From all reports, her little class of happy learners had a terrific day counting and counting and counting to...100. Which is clearly something to be celebrated...clearly.

Grateful for her sweet school and her kind and creative teachers. Grateful for her first group of playmates and buddies and all of the expected ups and downs associated to discovering the friendship-ing fundamentals. Grateful for the ways and means to send her to an in-person school...especially this year as it's truly saved us all. Digital learning ain't no joke and I'm grateful everyday for our positive in-person learning experience. It's not lost on me how rare her experience has been...and I am forever and endlessly grateful. Mostly grateful that our girl loves learning and for her endless curiosity and sense of wonder.

I think her pink and purple paper crown is my favorite part of this whole silly celebration. "I am 100 days smarter!" Brilliant! She walked in the door today carrying a toothpick marshmallow geometric creation with the biggest happiest grin and sporting this crown as if it was a diamond studded treasure straight from the Queen herself. What is it with little kids and paper crowns? What if the grown up world engaged with reality more like they do in kindergarten? What would happen to all of us grown-ups who are slogging our way through all of the normal grown-up tasks but now eleven months into a soul sucking, mind melting, hope crushing global pandemic? What if we experienced the liberal and generous distribution of colorful paper crowns that recognized our successful development, survival and growth. "I am 100 days smarter!" That certainly could not hurt, right? Ooo...wait..what if a crown AND a complimentary themed snack tray would magically appear to help us recognize and celebrate the tiny yet mighty accomplishments and milestones we are conquering on the regular? Woooweee! Just think of that wonderland! What would happen?

"You completed another mind numbing grant report!" Ta da! You get a crown!

"Congrats, you went grocery shopping, again!" Woohoo! You get a crown!

"You did it...you made dinner for your family...every...single...night!" Shazam! You get a crown!

"Congrats! You ended another week without flipping a table or punching a coworker or winning an assault charge!." Go you! You get a handful of crowns!

"YOU are a champion! Eleven months of pandemic parenting, social distancing, fevered disinfecting, endless hand sanitizing, determined mask wearing and so many damn zoom calls...YOU are the real winner! What you are doing...What you have done...What you have committed to continue to do...for not just yourself but for the whole community...because you believe in science and you are a thinking human who is trying to retain any sense of humanity….and cling to the final threads of your sanity, sensibility and sensitivity!..NOW THIS is truly something to be celebrated! YOU are impressive human!" You get ALL of the crowns!

Maybe the kindergarten crowd is onto something with all of these silly made up reasons to celebrate and practice and demonstrate our growing knowledge. Just picturing a sea of grown up city employees walking around the City and Country building or zombie level exhausted mom's and dad's slowly pushing carts at the grocery store magically transformed with the placement and power of a personalized paper crown...think of all of the big dopey proud grins that would instantly appear. Each passerby stopping briefly to acknowledge and celebrate and recognize the courageous act of simply surviving...one more day, one more meeting, one more project, one more mask….(inset any mundane adult tasks the pandemic has riddled with complications and modification here)….Paper crowns for everyone!....Paper crowns a plenty!…. Everyone beaming with confidence touting the knowledge that…"I AM 100 days smarter!" ….no, wait...I think the paper crowns should probably say...."I AM 11 pandemic months smarter!" Now, that is a VERY good visual! Thank you, Kindergarten…. thank you very much.