First Day of School: Tuesday's Reflection

For many children school starts today, and, oh, does that bring back memories. 

I loved school--both as a student and later as a teacher--and am grateful I was able to learn without great struggles and had parents who supported my love of learning. How thankful I am our children thrived in school settings. That is true now for our grandchildren, too.  Obviously, that is not always the case. 

(Note: I can't believe I wore a suit and nylons on my move-in day at St Olaf! That was 1966, and oh, how the times were different then!)

Today seems like a good day to celebrate all we have learned (Thank you, teachers!), all we have managed to survive, and the twists and turns, directions and dimensions of our lives. So much of our life has been in school. 

Today is also a good day, to think about what you are learning, what you are studying now. There so many excellent opportunities for those of us in the 3rd Chapter of our lives,for colleges and universities and community education programs are everywhere. Plus, there are online offerings. I salivate at all the possibilities, making it hard to pick and choose. I have signed up for a couple classes at The Loft Literary Center and this week will attend the first fall monthly writing session at Wisdom Ways.

At the same time I am conducting my own independent studies. Soon I will present an adult forum at church called Spirituality 101 and in the process I am reading and studying and sorting and processing. This summer I created a course for myself about writing essays and also spiritual memoir as a path for restructuring the book I am writing. 

And then there is the learning that comes with this stage of life. I have never been 69 years before and this time of life has great potential for learning. Inner learning. Inner growth. 

I am reading an excellent book by Sherry Ruth Anderson, Ripening Time, Inside Stories for  Aging with Grace. She says,
         I propose that, since we do not know what reaches and
         dimensions of our humanity are possible as we age, we
         engage the question. All the questions--whatever we can
         discover about how we can grow old consciously. We 
         already know too much about what diminishes--hearing,
         eyesight, short-term memory, speed of recall and 
         calculation, and so on. That is not so interesting. But
         to consider what grows, what develops, what ripens--that,
         I propose, is interesting indeed. 

We can each start a new school year today. The School of Conscious Aging. Get out your notebooks and pack a lunch. Happy first day of school! 

An Invitation
What first day of school memories do you have? Are you still in school? Actually or metaphorically? I would love to know.