I feel like I went through a long period of time where I was not intentionally learning. I was out of school and had a really good job in my field. I was very busy working full-time, raising my two children and managing our household of four.
The turning point came when I read a non-fiction book, just because I wanted to. That spawned my desire to read another, and then another.
I love to read and am almost always reading a fiction book as it feeds my soul. And for the last several years, I’m often reading a non-fiction book at the same time, which may take me longer because I don’t read it daily. I also tend to highlight passages that jump out at me and might look up things I don’t completely understand. But what I love is that I am learning.
Just recently, two days in a row, I came across quotes about learning. The first one was “Learning is a gift. Even when pain is your teacher” by Maya Watson. Ouch! We’ve all had lessons we’ve learned the hard way.
A personal experience that came to my mind was something that happened when I was a teenager. It was winter and I needed to get gas in the car I drove, which was owned by my parents. It had snowed and I cleaned off a small circle of the windshield, just enough to see where I was going. As I pulled into the gas station, that little circle did not provide enough visibility to see the three-foot-tall pole next to the gas pump, there to prevent vehicles from hitting the pump. I side swiped that pole and damaged the front and back passenger doors. I can still feel the dread I felt going home. Instead of telling my dad, I chickened out and asked my mom to. I remember he went out and looked at the damage and came back in, never saying a word, he just looked at me and shook his head. My 17-year-old self still cringes recalling that experience. But I learned! I always, and I mean always, clean snow off all of the windows of my car. I’ve relayed that story to my children, hoping they will learn from my mistake.
The second quote is by B.B. King, “The beautiful thing about learning is nobody can take it away from you.” I just love that. I think about all my past selves, the things I didn’t know and had (and have) yet to learn, the lessons that allowed me to let go of things I no longer want and make space for who I have yet to be. It can be both scary and exciting and I don’t want the learning to end.
When life gets hard, and it always does at times, I still have the opportunity to learn something from it.
