Lifelong Learners

As we close out October and move into November, consider the wisdom in this 2020 poem by former Oregon poet laureate Kim Stafford:

Home School Thoughts for All of Us

In the pandemic, what should we all be learning?

Self reliance
How to cook a meal. How to clean a house, a porch, a yard.
How to plant a garden. How to use tools. How to fix
broken things: sew a button, mend a hole, do laundry,
wash dishes like a pro.

Buoyancy
How to be sad and get over it. How to find the music
that restores you. How to walk so your troubles fall from
your shoulders. How to write your troubles to make them
visible, then manageable, then smaller, and finally funny.

Friendship
How to know a true friend. How to let go old friends
who make you feel bad about yourself. How to give
generously to a friend by listening, asking, wondering.
How to feed a friendship so it roots, deepens, grows.

Thought
How to think something through. How to question
your fears, interrogate them, talk back to them. How to remember
something so precious you are less afraid. How to make clear
what most calls to you, what you love, what you will do to sustain it.

Dreams
How to have a dream toward a life worth planning for, saving for,
working for. How to design ways to make steady progress toward
a worthy goal. How to identify a dream that is so important, you will
let go lesser things to achieve it.

Thrift
How to know what you need. How to pare away
what you don’t need—objects, habits, false wishes,
propaganda coming at you that is foreign to who you are—
so you can give energy to what you really want.

Love
How does it feel in your body when love is real—love for a person,
for a place, for a feeling about who you really are, a longing for
what you most want to do with this life? This is your compass,
your inner landmark, your truth principle. Only you can know.

Maintenance

Health. Rest. Calm. Breath. Patience. Affection. Humor. Active hope.

How do you ensure that Christ's peace and joy are your inner compass, leading you forward so you do more than merely endure through these pandemic days? How do you embrace the new as David does in Psalm 25, asking the Lord to show you His ways and guide you in His truth? We are each called to be in this moment, Friends. What will your response be?