Smartpants

Where have I been? I lost two weeks in there!! Okay, one Friday I just plum forgot to post and then the next week was INSANE. The whirlwind included visitors, covering for someone at work with family care commitments. But so much has been going through my head: new MOOCs, short little trips, the holidays coming, a very sad death in the family just yesterday. So all the things I wanted to talk about came and went like a bird passing through. Did I mention Halloween??

That’s okay. If they were important, hopefully those thoughts will come back.

 

 

The Prompt: What You Think You Know

This week’s prompt:

“Knowledge is learning something everyday. Wisdom is letting go of something everyday.”
         – Unknown

First task is to sit for a meditation on that for 5-10 minutes or however long you feel is good to you.

The Drawing

20191105_102602

 

 

 

My Haiku

…inspired by my drawing:

Leaving is for now
Dropping is for the season
They will all come back

The Reflection

This one is always work-to-do for me, the little Hermione that I can be. But I hear it in other people too: knowledge as a shield, as a way to gain traction in the world, as a way to master (even the word!), a way to elevate yourself above those without the knowledge. Sometimes you can plainly see this working intentionally in people. Other times, it’s completely subconscious.

Which is what makes beginners mind so, so handy. If you think you’re an expert at something: think again. Start over. 

I do this myself with instructional books of poetry. My first thought when I buy a book on how to write poetry (which I’m still doing 35 years in) is disappointment that the book is too “beginners.” I’m ready for the advanced stuff, teacher! Give me the hard stuff. And undoubtedly we get a lot from advanced books which crunch our brains. But I’m always humbled by some little gem hiding out in a beginners book, some perspective I’ve never ever considered. Admittedly if feels tedious at first, but it’s the surest way to true discovery: losing the crutch of the knowing. 

I think this is why teachers love beginners students: because they learn something from them. It’s also why beginner poems are so exciting: they’re freewheeling, and not from rules, but from innocence.

 

Give it a try.