Learning Makes Us Who We Can Become

Good morning son! And how are you this fine foggy morning? Yes, I said foggy. It reminds me of waiting for the school bus. I'd get all ready for school, get hair all done and by the time the school bus came my super fine hair was hanging straight. I use to hate that. There was simply no way to have my hair look half way decent by the time I got to school. Oh well, that's time past. I've found a way now. Let come what may: rain, snow, sleet, sun, fog, keep it cut short and no problem! Only took 64 years to learn that. The important thing is, I did learn. I am learning.

Dad and I are claiming a "day of rest" today. I think we overdid it just a bit yesterday trying to get all the Christmas organized and put away. True, we don't have anywhere near as much to put away as we did have. We use to begin decorating for Christmas the 1st of November so we could get it all done. The last time dad and grandpa put up Christmas lights in Oakdale we put up over 10,000 lights in the front yard. Those were the days! We loved doing it, but over the years we've learned that it's physically not possible to get up on ladders, climb stairs, reach over our heads and do all of that for 6 weeks straight to get it all put up. Yesterday we reorganized our storage room upstairs and made room to put all the Christmas against the back wall. We learned this year that one of the reasons it takes us so long to get things out and decorate was because we not only had to carry it all upstairs (about 20 tubs), we then had to carry it all back downstairs. Just the thought of having to do that slowed us down. So, we learned, ya wanna decorate, make it all accessible with a 64 and 74 year old in mind! We're not in our 30's anymore "Toto". 

The other thing I've learned this week is that it's important to put into action what you've learned. I've always teased dad about analyzing. He can analyzing something until it turns into ash! I spent the last 10 years of my work life with analyzers. Sometimes it seemed as though they spent so much time analyzing they could never produce a product. As I was looking through Pinterest on line yesterday, and I so love to see what ideas other comes up with, it dawned on me, I could very easily be one of "those people". I could spend so much time looking and "pinning" that I never put any of the great ideas into an actual product. Learning is something we should always do, without question. But, at some point, we have to put that learning into action.

Great-grandpa was close!

The point in all of this, in case you missed it, is that we've learned. We continue to learn. Your great-grandpa use to say, "If you think you know it all you might as well be dead. We should never stop learning."  Learning is such an important piece of growing up. Learning is what keeps us going and growing. I'm learning and discovering something new about myself everyday. Yesterday, it was that I can't do everything, all at once, that I use to do even 10 years ago. I can do most of it, just not as fast as I use to. When I do, it causes physical pain. I've learned that it's very important for me to realize that dad can't do it all as quickly as he did 10 years ago. When he does, he has physical pain. I've also learned that it's not really that important to "get it all done right now". When we don't slow down, it causes leg cramps, back aches, knee pain and can "put us out of commission" for longer periods than if we just slowed down and took a little longer to get it done. It eventually gets done and we don't suffer. Sounds pretty simple huh. Yup, but sometimes what you think you can still do overrides what your body is actually able to do. But, although sometimes the lessons are hard learned, they are hopefully, eventually, learned.

It's important that we have good people and resources to guide us as we learn. We all begin with our parents. Some of us are very fortunate in that respect, some not so fortunate. (Ouch! I just tried to stretch and raise my hands over my head. Mistake! Another reminder of a lesson learned.) Anyway, as we progress through life, no matter what age, we have people and resources in our lives that guide us and help us learn life lessons. As we get older and are able to seek out resources for ourselves it's important that we seek our the right people and resources. Hopefully the adults in our lives have given us the opportunity to ask, knock and seek. To ask the questions that may be difficult to answer but that we have the freedom to ask. To knock at the doors of opportunities that we might think are not available to us, but the courage to knock anyway. And freedom. The freedom to be who we are, who we want to be. The freedom to question and trust. To be who we are and love who we choose. The freedom to seek wisdom behind those doors where we have the courage to knock and the trust in ourselves to know that we are a person of strength and character because we have learned.

Until next week, be Aaron, love mom