Thirst for Learning

My weekly blog is becoming an "every-other-week-or-so" blog. At this point I'm ok with it. I'd love to get to a place where I can blog more regularly, but I think I'm still rusty when it comes to writing and creating content. Not that I can't find content, but I search for ways to tie the events that have occurred during my week to something meaningful that would be worth sharing.  I do believe that if I wait for the perfect ideas, though, I won't ever write, so again, I'm ok with putting out "ok" content, "sort of" regularly for now. Please bear with me. I'm learning.

I think that's how I view life. Being a home child care provider (or preschool teacher), one of my biggest goals is to help children come to love learning - to desire such a thirst for knowledge that they'd seek it out on their own. Actually, this comes pretty easy to kids and do this naturally already starting out. Babies eyes wander the room to absorb the lights and colors that they're beginning to recognize, ears listening to familiar voices and sounds that bring comfort. As they crawl, they want to put everything in their mouths, to discover new tastes and textures. Whether that freaks us out or not, that is their intention - to learn. Children push the boundaries as they become toddlers to learn what they can and cannot do in their environment. They touch, throw, bang, stomp on, tear, stack, constantly seeking to learn new things of how things work in their world.

 
As we grow older, we lose that. Many of us have had experiences in school where we've had to learn as a requirement, regardless of whether it was interesting to us or not, and with no connection of how this new content would relate to real life. I can hear that teenager saying, "When am I ever going to use this in real life?" It's a valid question. Often times, we don't know the answer.

But, coming back to teaching, I get to see children's faces light up when they learn something new. My daughter will ask a question, and after letting her know that I'm not sure of the answer, she'll ask if we can find a book about it at the library. And when I follow through with that, her thirst for knowledge grows even deeper. And that same love and thirst for learning becomes rekindled in my own life as well. These children have reignited something in me.

I have been reminded the last few weeks of the things I've been "wanting to learn... someday." I have decided I want to learn it now. Now is the time. Now is the time of learning all those things I've put off. I want to learn another language. Photography. How to be a professional blogger. Learning how to paint. Teaching my children art, music, and how to cook and bake. Practicing on the piano again. Playing in a band again. I told my husband how I wanted to improve my blog by taking better pictures, and I wanted to learn to use my DSLR camera. He told me the words I needed to hear. Just like Nike. "Just do it." And I did! I picked up my camera for the first time in a very, very long time, and I've been carrying it with me everywhere I go. Taking random pictures of the kids, of places. Some come out pretty good. Some are awful. Some are so fuzzy I can't make anything out. And quite a few pictures of the floor. But it's awesome because I'm doing it, and little by little, I'm getting better!

And I've been painting. Many of these supplies I bought almost a year ago. But I'm using them now, every week so far. And I've been so blessed to be commissioned for a few projects, allowing me to invest in more needed materials.

 
I may not have life all together yet, and maybe I never will. But I need to stop waiting for life to be perfect to do the things I feel I was called to do. I need to take the advice I give my perfectionist 5-year-old daughter: "You're learning. And when we learn we all make mistakes. And that's ok. We get better every time." I'm reading this back as I just typed it, and it's so true - I need to tell myself that more often. So I guess I'm not so sorry my blog isn't as regular as I want it to be. I'm getting better. And that's ok.