I find this to be a very interesting comment and am spending a lot of time thinking about it. To me, it means that we need to refine our ability to receive things. But I think it’s even more than that.
I think it has more to do with refining our ability to NOTICE things.
Take a minute to see if any part of this rings true for you. If not, visualize a classic picture of Santa Claus. There it is.
More or less that means to stay out of the way.
As parents, we want our children to learn from our experiences so we provide them all kinds of advice. Some of us even get upset with them when they don’t take it.
Go figure.
Sometimes, though, we understand the importance of allowing our children the space and time to figure out things in their own ways. Deep down we know that while we may be more efficient at feeding a one year-old, for instance, we know it’s in her best interest to handle the spoon herself. We clean up the mess, knowing it’s all part of the development process.
Some things people just have to learn for themselves.
So I ask my students, “From how many degrees are you seeing this situation? What can you do to increase that number?”
In other words, are you ever able to take something messy and make it into something clean and useful? I tend to think of garbage as useless, a space-taker. It’s like the clutter of the planet, or of one’s thoughts. And I see recycling as transforming one thing into something else. It reuses rather than wastes. It’s a loving act in its purest form, like how the flame of one candle can light an infinite number of other candles.
Someone who can take garbage, the garbage of others no less, and make it into something useful has tapped into what it means to be human at one of our deepest levels.
“Much of what we do is like planting trees under which we may never sit, but plant we must.” — Brother James Kimpton
Me, I think “planting trees” is a metaphor for my actions. How does my behavior create my reality, my opportunities, how others see me, and more? In each moment I am planting a tree. I may not ever sit directly under it to enjoy its shade, but someone else will.
What do I want to leave behind?
What do you know by heart?
But I’ve come to see it as also meaning to know something from inside my heart. You know, when you just know something is true or right or pure? I think that’s also knowing something by heart.
I’m paying extra attention to notice what I know by heart. I believe the more attention I pay to things I know by heart, the more I engage in activities I know by heart, the more people I interact with who I know by heart, the more I’m aware of the nice things the world has to say to me.
To illustrate this, I offer you this short video. Go take a look and pay special attention to your reactions as you watch it.
See if it doesn’t tap into something else that is natural to being human.
Humans are natural learners. Tap into that and we learn naturally and eagerly. Provide the right kind of support, beginning with the environment, and things like academics take care of themselves.
