When I was a child

I knew everything

Why the grass was green 

and why the birds would sing

And as I got older 

I started to learn

That not everything we’re told 

Is necessarily so

A child who lives with laughter learns to be joyful

A child who lives with criticism learns to condemn

A child who is parented 

by someone who hasn’t yet learned 

is doomed to repeat these lessons over and over again

When I was a child 

I learned to be small

And whenever there was fighting, 

I had no voice at all

And as I grew up bigger I got loud,

And traveled far

Now that I am older

(And grayer and slow)

There’s not so many places 

I’d still like to go…

Some days I want to just sit here and watch the snow as it falls,

Or the rain, or the sun, 

Just stay within my own walls

I couldn’t wait to get bigger, 

I couldn’t wait to grow up

But now I want to be smaller, cause smaller’s big enough.