October 18, 2012

A blustery shadowed fall morning, cloudy to start but growing brighter as the morning passes.  Some days I get distracted trying to find a poem; I feel like a small child in a candy factory with every thing around so delicious and shiny and attractive!  The internet is like that factory, every click brings a new world and takes you further and further away from your original intent.  But sometimes it brings you back too, and that kind of exploring opens doors that you might not have gone through otherwise.  It seems the wind is doing some exploring of its own today, coming and going through the doors of trees, and though I know it's mostly coming from the north, my chime is singing loudly and with gusto, it is swirling about the yard as if coming in from every direction.  The fat squirrel is sitting on the thick branch of the crepe myrtle, all hunched up with its tail twitching as if blown about by the wind.

I'm glad not to have to go out today, glad to do this morning note, and then grade my students projects, and their work from this week.  I enjoy seeing what they choose to do when given only a framework they must fill in.   Some are okay with that, and can make cards that show a variety of techniques and styles and themes.  Some are more comfortable with doing the same type of thing for nine cards, same technique, same theme.  I would like to dump some of them out of their comfortable box and encourage them, really encourage them, in the truest sense of the word, engender them with courage to try something new, to not be afraid to make mistakes, to take a risk or two.  It seems to me that for them making a mistake is a tragedy, something to be avoided at all costs, and they don't realize how much you learn from mistakes, that mistakes can open whole new ways of doing things, that mistakes are often made because you are moving on, getting into areas you have not explored before, territory without a map.  Perhaps these students are too . . . safe, too protected, risk is not encouraged, not part of their lives.  While no one wants their child to fail at anything, or be hurt, those experiences are part of life and how we deal with them make up a lot of our character, and are very educational.  I am sure any adult can remember a lot more about how they coped with hurt or failure than they can any number of good weeks where nothing untoward happened.

I did not find the poem until I was writing about getting into unexplored areas, then I remembered a short poem by Wendell Berry about taking a spiritual journey.  I found it among some poems I had saved.

A Spiritual Journey

And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles,

no matter how long,

but only by a spiritual journey,

a journey of one inch,

very arduous and humbling and joyful,

by which we arrive at the ground at our feet,

and learn to be at home.

 Wendell Berry

I would like my students to take that one inch and find themselves at home in a world where mistakes are common and knowledge is more important than getting everything right the first time.  I think it is an arduous journey to embrace mistakes, one I am still making, still mapping out.  It does seem that is one of the gifts of age, you are not as afraid, are willing to be wrong and admit it. 

This morning the ground at my feet is full of wind and noise and movement.  There is something exhilarating about wind, something in us that recognizes the urge to travel, to move along and touch everything.  I am continuing on the spiritual journey to love my mistakes, to take in all the beauty that surrounds me every day, learning to be at home wherever I am, in the moment of now.