As the end of the calendar year approaches I am thinking about the wisdom that surrounds me and that could be mine if only I could learn to pause-to stop in my mad rushing around and suspend daily, my mental preoccupations in favour of stillness and quietness of mind.
My friend told me about her unschooled daughter who when she was young would spend afternoons simply contemplating a field of flowers. She could sit motionless hours on end watching a frog's movements, examining it's physicality it's behaviour.
Was this child learning? Of course she was. She was not making a show of it, some might even say she was 'wasting time' but this is the essence of authentic learning. What a gift it is to have that mental capacity for non interference, for observation and concentration.
2 comments:
Actually,most new ideas and inventions come from people who have had heaps of time to day dream and experiment.
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