What are you studying…

Hello friends,

It’s mid September just before equinox, which means we’re on the edge of autumn here in the northern hemisphere. Autumn has always been my favorite time of year. Partially, because this is my birth season, but partially because I grew up in Los Angeles and summers in the filthy air felt brutal.

Autumn was also a favorite because of school supplies. The scent of freshly sharpened pencils. The chance to study, even though, as a voracious reader, you might say I studied all the time. But you know what I had to teach myself as an adult? How to learn. I needed to teach myself how to study things that didn’t come naturally to me. I had to learn patience in the face of seeming failure.

I study all the time now. Business. Writing craft. Spiritual practice. I also just booked a trainer at the gym. I study humanity and nature, too, constantly. Sometimes I even learn things!

Years ago, I coined a phrase, “Beware the teacher who only has students.” Partially, that was a warning about teachers who had no friends and colleagues at their own level to keep them in check and rebalance their authority and power. But the other part of it? A teacher needs to know how it feels to learn, and to take on teaching. Not five or twenty-five years ago. Now.

So, spurred on by the pencil I found on a recent walk, today I’m wondering what you’re studying, and what things you’ve learned. Care to share with the class?

Best wishes — Thorn