Bested by Kindergartners

Climbing Mt Fuji was no easy feat. Our group is on the right heading up the mountain. Coming down on the left is a group of kindergartners who are heading down. They were laughing and running and having a silly time together. We on the other hand are gasping for breath and doing our best to keep up with the group. Yes, that is a pretty steep drop you see on the left and the children were wokring hard to stay on track. We ended up staying overnight in a hut at the seventh station of the mountain, our descent began at 5am the next morning. When we finally arrived at the main station, there was another group of children getting ready to climb. I recognized the new group’s guide as the teachers from this picture bringing these children down the day before. That means the teacher climbed part of the mountain each day that week. 

When we look at our lives we see battles and uphill climbs. We see victories and accomplishments, we see lessons learned and attempts. When we look back we have clarity about things in the past that present state does not provide. We have the ability to review and contemplate the decisions we made, what we experienced, and we have time to put it all into context. When you are in the midst of the climb you can only think about taking one step after another, hoping you won’t fall off the steep side of things. You want to get to the top and hope you will make it.

At these trying times it can seem like injustice to be bested by kindergarteners. You are working your hardest to climb and get to your goal, and someone younger, smaller, and less intelligent than you has already done what you are attempting AND they are on their way down laughing and giggling. What do they know that you don’t? They know how to get to the top and climb down with joy. 

There will always be people who are at a different place in their life than where you are in yours. While you are battling the climb, they are sailing down the hill having fun. While you are weeping they are celebrating a recent success or milestone. While you are working hard to make ends meet they are traveling the world with apparently no responsility whatsoever. Never judge the other person by what you are experiencing, you are only seeing one part of their journey. These kindergarteners had to make the hard climb in order to have fun on the way down. The teacher had to herd the children on the way up in order to teach them how to be orderly and safe on the way down. There is always another side of the experience, usually the one we do not see. I learned a lot from these kids and I had a different smile on my face when I was at the bottom and a new group of kindergarteners was headed uphill.