"Hakuna Budd-dha-dha" - All Credit to Dave Wooley For Naming the Phenomena

Over the weekend, there was a brief exchange with my friends Dave Wooley and Kris Sealy about revisiting our youth and what we used to be like in relation to being an adult and what life is like right now. I asked Kris for a philosophical phrase for when one is provided with youthful choices after one has advanced one's self through being young and finding a way into adulthood.

I explained that my love of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha has taken on new meaning as I work with kids who were once the age I was, who do what I once did, but who have no awareness for the youthfulness of their ways.

Here, I'm referring to the period of time when I chose to go out to the night scene at 11 p.m. - socializing with friends, bars, dance floors, booze, and flirting - only to return as the adults in my life were getting ready for work.

I did that, but put an end to it in my first year of teaching because I couldn't go out all night and function in the classroom. It no longer worked.

I explained to them that I now have new understanding for when Siddhartha found the true meaning of Om, knowing that his son wanted to separate from him and to be independently on his own journey. This is not the case of Chitunga...but will be...but with other kids who are totally enraptured by the early to mid-twenties.

Dave's advice, "Hakuna Budd-dha-dha." It was brilliant. The om is found through a total understanding of life cycles and routines that help us to develop at each age, despite the craziness of what those experiences actually offer us. One choice is to be overly adult and be like, "That's dumb...when I was your age, I...."

I recalled my early 20s when I was home in Syracuse and simply went out all night, totally oblivious to my parent's routine. Years later I asked and they responded, "We were too tired. We just went to sleep and hoped you'd be okay."

That's what I did this weekend. I simply went to bed, fell asleep, and didn't worry.

Hakuna Budd-dha-dha. Finding no worries by simply tapping the inner Buddha to find the serenity in the way life develops us all. I loved it.

Shaw wrote, "Youth is wasted on the young." I'd argue that youth is necessary to give us perspective as we age.

Yes, in my 30s I discovered the joy of being home, under a blanket, reading a book and finding calm within my own house. In my 20s, I went for the excitement, because it was exciting, until I realized it was pointless and absolutely stupid. I would never had known that had I not experienced it and grew out of it.

I would never want that age to return either. So, I learned Hakuna Budd-dha-dha this weekend and I'm good with that.

Adulting is difficult, but I much prefer it. Period.