How is it that I know how to cast a fishing line? Or hoe and plant a garden properly ... that okra likes it hot and dry ... that squash plants like a little mound on which to grow? How is it I know how to change a tire and to create a wireless network of my computers and printers?  Why do I know a defensive driver does not crest a hill on a divided highway in the left lane? How is it I can recognize signs of trouble in a car engine, could lay roof shingles if I had to, and know what makes pancakes nice and fluffy. Why can I tell when someone looks peaked (pronounced peak-ed)?

I've been thinking lately of the things I, or any of us, know without even "trying." Of things learned without being taught, but simply by being present. It has to do with time spent ... time spent paying attention, or just being present with someone though we may not be fully engaged in the moment. This is why what we do with our time, especially as children but all of our lives, is of such great importance. It was during some of my most irritating times such as blackberry picking with my grandmother in the sweltering, relentless heat of a buggy summer, or stringing up beans in samesuch summer that I now realize I have gained the most. I know things that matter simply by my having "been there." 

Though I applaud the premise, we need to know more than what we learn in kindergarten. We need the knowing of what those three leaves actually look like. We need to know how to sit on the porch every evening before bed at the end of the day ... which actually does end, by the way, for those of us who want to believe and behave as though time is limitless.

And, we all need to realize that we are all teaching with the lives we live and messages we send. Make it worthy.