It’s amazing how many things can happen in a low-key day. Today was one of those uneventful days that was filled with lots of miniscule things to make it memorable. I scared Booggie twice this morning (followed Janae’s lead and waited in her closet for at least 5-10 minutes), heard a Cheerios box story read dramatically in Spanish by Andrew, and even picked up the crossword again. There were some low points as well like a physical breakdown after “Turkey Time” (Janae warned me of this and I disobeyed ☹), followed by an emotional breakdown (nothing out of the ordinary, really ☺). It’s the sad things like this which make the happy things seem more happy though, right? I used to be scared to put anything negative on this blog journal of mine, as it’s the BEST things I wasn’t to focus on, not the worst things. Now I see that the opposition between the two is necessary. I still think I’ll log the more pleasant parts though. ☺
In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought last night as I fell asleep that I should write up a gratitude list of some sort. I’ve been bad about this for a while and only one blessing came to my head. I told myself there were, of course, a hundred other things I had to be grateful for, but this seemed to summarize them all:
I love learning. I think it is my favorite thing to do—more so even than some top five things I’ve listed before (people, music, education, traveling/recreation, politics, etc). Learning encompasses each of these. I’m a slow reader, writer, and learner to be honest, but I am SO grateful for our body and spirit that we can continue to progress in a variety of ways about a variety of things. I’ve always liked learning, but when I got sick of school and from school (yes, I let my schooling get in the way of my education), I forgot how fantastically amazing knowledge is. Not knowledge that you spit to make yourself sound smart, but real knowledge that actually changes you. You’d think after my last post on this very topic, I would have figured this “learning as recreation” business out already. Nope. I think it took me getting a new perspective on life in Arizona to remember how I love people because I learn from them. It took me bringing my reading rampage on the journey to remember how I love non-fiction and learn best from reading and writing. It took me failing to practice the organ this week and being scared to death to play hymns, to realize the challenges of even something you love and are supposed to be good at. Whenever you learn from failing, even, the accomplishment makes you new. It’s so refreshing to take a baby step up and see where you’ve come from. This isn’t making sense like it does in my mind, but in truth, the things I’m most grateful for are not genres of activity or ideas; those are only modes for how I learn. People, music, reading, writing (and I’ve got to put a plug for tennis)—they are my loves—not in isolation, but because they teach me. Thank you for teaching me.
