Taking the Learning a Step Farther.

 Just taking the learning a step farther.

me

I know I am a crazy person in many ways.  My curiosity to know and understand everything around me  is like a little Alien inside me...I feel it rumbling around in my gut all day and then poof, under the right conditions,  it is sticking its head out eating up everything related to learning it can. 

To think, I spent a great deal of my earlier years believing I was stupid and could not learn like everyone else. Though, I had a great deal of curiosity and motivation to learn my conditioning had left me with little confidence. I couldn't fit into "standardized" learning situations very well. Without knowing it, I was always a very independent and self -directed learner and did better when I was not surrounded by others in competitive learning systems. Once, I realized that my intellect took off. The love for learning grew as my confidence grew. Then learning, learning, and more learning became what I wanted to do with my life!

 This little job I do for ten hours a week, for example, I can't get enough learning in.  I mean, because of my self-directed learning style, I have always lived under the mantra in one way or another, "I teach, so I can learn; I learn, so I can teach." So, it doesn't surprise me that I am spending many more hours than I am actually there...learning and preparing teaching plans so I and others learn. But...I can't seem to stop there...I am literally writing books for EAL learners as I learn and tutor. Like, What the Front door, crazy lady? This is just a little retirement job...a little service...a little of me honoring my role as the Elder in the village. I wasn't supposed to take it so seriously.  I am not a certified K-12 teacher, and am just filling in until there is one available. So, I likely won't even be there next year. Why am I putting so much energy into learning here? I don't know other than it is who I am. I do it with everything. 

When I am reading a book, I have a pen in my hand and I am underlining as I go, jotting down notes etc. When I listen to a podcast, I take notes. Then I write about whatever I read or heard so I process the learning a  bit. I eat, sleep, and breathe what I learn. I speak about it. I use whatever skill I may have gained over the years to help me assimilate what I learn. I am a learning junkie. 

You would think at my age that passion for learning would subside just a bit but just the opposite has happened.  I now have more time for learning!! Making up for the lost time of my younger years, I guess.  I am being pulled even more into the world of learning.

 I love learning and I love sharing my learning.  What does that make me, other than a crazy lady with a slimy 100 lb lizard in her gut?  

Of course, this passion for learning has led me into my spiritual practice, into the most ultimate of learning journeys. Here, my curiosity goes beyond the obvious intellectual stuff...to wanting to go a step farther. It  is taking me beyond the obvious to That from which the obvious emerges. I now use the intellctual stuff I am drawn to, to  help me open the door to That which exists beyond the intellectual mind. 

Hmmm!

There is just so, so much wonderful things in this life to learn. So much! And This, that is behind it all, is what I want to get to, is where all my learning has been taking me. Go figure.

All is well in my world.