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Life & Learning

The mountain before the tree

A morning thought. It’s about this picture, Le Lac d’Annecy and the apprehension of reality. (I mean apprehension in its apparent 14th C meaning of ‘grasp with the senses or mind’.)  <– and that’s in parenthesis because I cannot convey the meaning in my voice in a simply font.

With reality, I don’t mean the stuff around us, but truths, and specifically the passions that drive us – whethere that is music, that sense of being in nature, there will be something. There will be something that you relish breathing in. That’s it, even if it is not a thing. It won’t be a thing, but I won’t attempt to name it or even suggest what it could be for you. The interesting thing here is not the actual thing, but how you see it.

That’s where the picture comes in. and warning, there’s some cerebral stuff ahead, but it’s worth swimming in the concepts – you will feel refreshed, revitalised, and maybe just see a bit more clearly when you blink after coming out of the water. There’s a paragraph and then a phrase. The paragraph describes how one needs to not only view, but be emmersed, as I suggested – swim, and ‘participate’ with the stuff of our reality to take it in. Here’s the paragraph and then I’ll go on:Read More »The mountain before the tree

A little quieter

Yesterday marked the end of one of my taught classes. I had online face to face meetings with a dozen masters students, to supplement their written work. I haven’t actually had conversations with so many people on one day in – well months. After that day of meetings and typing was done, I was exhausted, and I thought.

I miss them, now, and I anticipate missing them in the weeks to come.

After teaching ends there is normally a lull. A quiet descends. ‘It’ doesn’t end  – there is an avalanche of marking, reading individual essays and providing useful comments, which consumes my time, but the seeing people ends.

In these past few months, by necessity, there has been less and less seeing of people.Read More »A little quieter

I, Mother

I am reminded it is American Mother’s Day. (I always forget, as here in the UK it is months earlier, and the origins of the holiday are about allowing the workers to return to their ‘mother’ parish, not about celebrating ‘mommy’) Still, it has become an expected cultural landmark in the US of A, and many they will enjoy this holiday; please feel celebrated.Read More »I, Mother