L – Learning/Listening
Little by little as the years roll by I am forever learning something new and gaining more knowledge and experience to store in my mind….Like most everyone, I hope that I can continue to remember what I have learnt although I find now like a computer I need to hit the ‘Refresh’ button every so often for if I haven’t worked on a project for a time it’s not as easy to do again. That also applies with people I meet. Because of my impaired vision I’ve never been good at recognising faces until they are close. Does anyone ever have that experience when walking in the street or in a crowd when you see a face that looks familiar but you can’t put a name to that face? It’s usually when I’ve walked 10 paces past them it suddenly dawns on me who that person was/ is!!!....Thankfully, friends know that I am not deliberately ignoring them so usually they speak first and hearing their voice I immediately know who it is.
Looking back over the years it’s surprising just how much knowledge I have gained (not including my school years) but with working and the things that have grabbed my interest so much that I just have to work on it until I can do it….It’s the ‘challenge’ and I think that is what most of us accept, not realising that by working at these things our mind is stimulated by all the learning, I’m convinced it must help with our mind/memories as we age.
Listening is something I’ve never taken for granted. Basically I’m a quiet rather shy person (I know you wouldn’t think so but I can express myself better with writing than actually speaking) Go figure!!....I think it’s being the youngest in a family of 7 children as by the time all the others had their say there wasn’t much left for me to add. When in a group of people I much prefer listening to what everyone is saying rather than contributing.
Learning to speak another language is something I’ve always wanted to do especially polish as that is the country where most of my ancestors came from. I think for many people like me one has to learn it whilst young. When I was young I asked my father to teach me how to speak Polish but he would reply ‘Oh I‘ve forgotten’ but this was not so as every Sunday we would go visit with my Grandmother and they would discuss things in Polish that they did not want we children to know about. Then when they finished their talk they would speak in English. I realised many years later that if I had learnt polish then I too would have known what it was they were talking about and obviously it was subjects that children, especially in that era should not know.
Lightening is something I am fascinated by although I don’t like severe Thunderstorms. It’s more the sudden clap of thunder that frightens me but the different strokes of lightening at night always amaze me. Whenever we have such storms two of my little dogs cling to my side, especially little Chanelle who I have to cuddle and soothe her until the storm passes. Kindy is fine so long as she can lie by my side… However Muffy gets so angry he races outdoors and barks furiously trying to search for whatever it is making the noise even when the heavens open up and the rain tumbles down. I’ve learnt to lock their doggie door until the storm passed to prevent him from being drenched with water.
I hope that during the future years I can continue to learn and accept new challenges but one never knows what the future holds.
Tags: Education
