What Are You Learning?

Recently, at one of our weekly family dinners, my 13 year old grandson turned to me and asked, “Grandma, what have you been learning lately?” It was a great question, and a surprising one, prompted, perhaps, by my questions to him from time to time. What was he learning in math? In English?

But now he was turning the tables, and I was taken aback. What had I been learning?

I said I’d learned that politicians can surprise us, maybe even surprise us in ways we liked. (I was thinking of Marjorie Taylor Greene.) But I wasn’t satisfied with my answer. That wasn’t learning, I thought. That was just paying attention to the news.

Since then his question has remained with me, remembering times in my life when (not involved in a particular formal course of study), I was nevertheless intensely involved with learning. Learning which came about spontaneously, organically.

One of these times was after we moved into a new house with a new back yard and I became suddenly obsessed with all things relating to flowers and flower-gardening. Perennials, in particular. Another time, I developed an intense interest in the impressionist painters—Monet and Manet, Pissarro and Cezanne, Mary Ann Cassatt. I absorbed everything I could about them—their painting styles, where they painted and who they painted with. Their love relationships, their struggles for acceptance by the traditionalists. There’s a delight in these passions–becoming completely engrossed with something new and wanting to learn everything you can about it.

Undoubtedly, you too, recall similar times for yourself. When you’ve been fascinated by a particular subject—maybe photography or cave art, poetry or the history of the Civil War. You become totally absorbed in the subject—paying attention to every reference that crops up in your life, seeking out other avenues to discover more. It’s an exciting thing– a new infatuation, a passion. And it adds a richness to every day that not much else can.

So how can we add more of these sorts of experiences to our lives? I would suggest that there are two ways:  (1) paying attention, and (2) curiosity.

“Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning,” William Arthur Ward wrote. And Eleanor Roosevelt said that “Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive.”

For the creative in you, a healthy curiosity is an invaluable asset:  What would happen if I took this series of photographs in black and white rather than color? What if I added another protagonist to this novel and wrote her chapters in first person?

What are you interested in? No matter how off-the-wall this might be? What are you passionate about? Indulge yourself and be on the lookout for new interests. Not only will it provide a spark for the creativity inside, it’s a joyous way to be fully alive. –Lucy Adkins

For more inspiration, check out our website www.thewritingandcreativelife.com. Or follow this link to purchase Writing in Community or our latest book, The Fire Inside.