Five True Things about Learning from Life

The truth about learning from life is that it takes a long time to do so. Some things, like wanting to live with passion and purpose, or knowing the importance of giving our kids a magical childhood are born with us. Knowing how to make those things happen while living with stress and too-late-bedtimes isn’t as intuitive.   

In college, I thought that Statistics class would be impossible. At first, it was. I went to after-hours one-on-one lessons, moaned to my professor that “I’m probably too right-brained to ever get this,” but kept going. Luckily for me, he kept explaining, and letting me come. One day, after about eight weeks, it clicked. Not only did I understand calculating medians and why that matters over averages, but I was hooked. I got it. I ended up finishing that class with one of the highest grades in it after beginning it with my lowest.

Before Statistics class clicked, I believed that grasping the things that made it Statistics was impossible.

In high school and college, I thought my parents would never understand me. I dismissed their advice, assumed that it came from other eras and other DNA.

Before becoming a parent, I had all of the answers.

Tonight, I think about life lessons, and about what I learned last year, and in all of my years.

Five True Things about Learning from Life

1. The truth about learning from life is that it’s not going to happen today. Don’t even bother asking yourself what truths you learned this month. Because while you may now know the cheapest place to buy strawberries in your area, if there are big lessons brewing, they’ll need time to sit. And so will you.
2. Children will surprise you in the very best and worst ways ever. Children will shock you, amaze you, and humble you. Listen to them. Sit with the lessons they give you because they know more about tomorrow than you do.
3. Talk to children. You will shock them, amaze them, and humble them. Talk to them. Have them sit with the lessons you give because you know more about yesterday than they do, and yesterday’s lessons matter for the tomorrows.
4. You’ll learn more listening than you will talking. I sat in a work meeting today, and I talked, way too much. I talked about how we need xyz numbers blah blah, and I got carried away in my agenda. Pausing and listening matters. That my son was at work, tap-tap-tapping on the door because he had to pee, and didn’t know where to go to do so was a good reminder of this. And a good reminder to listen to children. Maybe especially when they have to pee.
5. Don’t overthink, but think about your decisions. Many of them, when made for the wrong reasons, are likely a little bit manic. Maybe, you’re trying to re-get a feeling you’ll never feel again. Maybe not. But, think about what you’re deciding, and why you’re deciding it. In reality, there often is no rush, unless Apple or Google just gave you 24 hours to accept a job in which case, rush, say yes, and wing it, ’cause that’s not going to happen often.
   Making decisions is part of life and I like to believe that there are no right or wrong ones – that just doing something is usually best. Still, think about what you’re going to do. Also, try to not hurt anybody. Ever. Most especially yourself.

Last year, I learned that my son has two worlds now. He built them in Minecraft. My son can build worlds, friends. Once, he wasn’t able to build words, much less worlds with an “L.” For me, this is one of last year’s lessons.

As is that I’m totally unprepared to answer his daily questions. Yesterday’s:

“Why do girls pee from their bottoms?”
“When did we get Daddy?”
“Why do cats not like dogs?”

I give you these questions to remind you that we’re all working on learning, and on answering the tough questions in life. I probably think about the human race, and our significance weekly. But tonight? I’m thinking about how to answer why cats don’t like dogs, and thinking about what I’d like to figure out this year that is slightly more meaningful than that.

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This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post. This week’s sentence is  “In 2015, I learned….” or “The one thing I learned in 2015 is…”
Your hosts:
Me (findingninee.com)
This week’s sentence thinker upper, Vidya from Collecting Smiles, and
Kerry of Her Headache