Thursday, May 20, 2010

My Favorite Classroom




College? I don't have time. I'm too busy learning.

I'm searching the Web and my garden for clues how to grow flowers, orchard trees and grapevines. Gardening! It requires years to do it right.

I'm reading back-to-the-land books and the unafraid kindred spirits there teach me to become more self-sufficient, curious and brave. I'm learning to farm by way of Mary Jane Butters' magazines and books, the Net and stories told by farm women online. They tell me work smart, not hard, around our own farm using efficiency, saving steps, my back and my resources.



Books and the Internet teach me how to save hundreds of dollars around my home, yard and life. Online, on tv and in magazines I'm learning to decorate my home, organize and declutter it, keeping it clean by making my own (safe) cleaning products.



The Internet also illustrates much about human nature, the good, the bad and the terrible (oh, those message boards!), though I like to concentrate upon the good. Through blogs, emails and Facebook I'm learning why people do what they do and am becoming (I hope) more sympathetic because of the 'why behind the what.'



Rachel Ray, my cookbooks and cooking websites show me recipes and techniques so I can feed healthy, inexpensive meals to others.



Doctors Mercola, Oz and Colbert teach me to run first, not to medicine, but to common sense, vitamins, herbs, exercise, good food and sound sleep. I'm questioning the mainline health information I've been fed for 50 years--and discovering truth which I can then share here.


I'm researching online authors and actors and those folks in history who inspired us. I watch the birds at our feeders and research them, too, online and in our bird book. By way of tv and Internet news I'm learning what's happening in our world, mostly the bad part--and how I can help.

By taking lots of pictures I'm learning photography, by writing I learn to write better. And the occasional perusal of books, magazines and online articles help me, as well.

Through the Bible and hours alone whispering with God I'm learning about the vital-ness of love, kindness and never giving-up. Daily, God and Joyce Meyer are teaching me how to live wisely, contentedly and with tons of joy as I obey God's plans for my life.


Oh the lessons! 

Constantly they're on my mind, from my first step out of bed to my last back into it on dark nights. Mornings sound my school bell. It's a pleasant, inviting sound.






****

It's a short list of things in Life which make my blood boil, and here is one: When people insist that real learning is only done in a classroom and anyone who doesn't attend college is a loser.


Gah! Don't get me started.




*****

5 comments:

Tracy said...

Great post, Debra! I'm like you - there is always something new to learn each and every day. :)

Lisa in Texas = ) said...

What a great post! We really are learning all the time.
Oh and I totally agree with the statement that says that it takes years to learn gardening. Trial and error and researching is where I am as well.
Lisa :o)

Judy said...

I just LOVE learning. LOVE it.

Still learning to love, and that's fun too.

Laura said...

Whenever I pine away for college classes, I remind myself that I'm just as capable of picking up textbooks and history books and learning any ol' thing I want from my library and book stores and the internet. I've taken a sudden, or at least more deep interest in history lately, family history, American history and the role women have played in history. Really, anything that happens in life, I'm fascinated to research how it happened a million times and ways before this time and all the ways it was different and how this time came to be, etc.

Fawn Gilmore Kraut said...

You are so wise Debra. And they don't teach that in college!