Harmony Day and Returning to Child-like Innocence

Harmony Day is celebrated on the 21 March and coincides with the U.N.'s International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (see http://www.racismnoway.com.au/classroom/factsheets/17.html. It is a day where we celebrate cultural diversity and tolerance towards all races.

On Thursday, I was shopping at my local shopping centre when I noticed a display that the Prep kids of one of the local schools I used to work at had made. The kids were learning all about Harmony Day, and they had to write down and draw what the word "harmony" meant to them. The things that the children wrote really touched me:

Harmony is playing with my brother...

Harmony is sharing my toys...

Harmony is hugging my mum...

Harmony is being kind...

Many thoughts came into my mind as I was reading these words. Initially, I thought about the times when I was working there, and the joy I felt working with the children. Then I thought about the innocent and kind nature that most children possess. What if these children were able to harness this nature and take it with them for the rest of their lives?

Our society often jokes about how kids can be little terrors sometimes. But isn't it in reality the adults who become the monsters by shedding off the skin of child-like innocence? Aren't we the ones who are reminded by children the importance of getting along with one another? Why do we find it so hard to forgive one another and get along with each other, while children seem to be able to do this quite easily? What is this "secret" to child-like innocence that we seem to have forgotten long ago?

I am grateful to these children for teaching me through their words and their drawings how easy it really can be to live in harmony. I hope to always remember the lesson they have taught me.