Learning! I Can Do It Myself

 

I feel like I’m in the middle of a game of telephone. You remember the game we played when we were young. Everyone sits in a row and the first person whispers something in the next person’s ear. This continues down the line to the last person. He then tells everyone what he heard. We would compare it with what the first person said. It was funny the difference we heard. I always suspected someone changed the message purposely.

Today was irrigation day and my husband was out of town. So, he asked neighbor D to turn it on for me and then I could pass it on. Last night neighbor J1 called after I was in bed and told me my driveway was flooded. Humm, what’s going on? She called neighbor J2 and I called neighbor D who told me that the arrangement had changed around. J2 would go first, I was second and neighbor L was third. This morning I awoke to a flooded yard. When I had my fill, I passed it on to Neighbor L. All is well in my world…. until neighbor J2 called to find out why I hadn’t called him to pass on the water. It was a major communication gap.

First, I wonder about my communication skills and then about his health. Is something going on in his life that confuses his mind?

I need to be more mindful of my neighbors. I tend to hole up in my home and let the rest of the world pass me by, especially when I’m stranded. I need to take action myself instead of letting others make my decisions and tell me about it. Like the telephone game, sometimes the message goes astray.

Now being the political season, we hear things that may or may not be true. Who can you believe? Everyone says “Fake news, Fake news” Who do you trust?

At church we have implemented Home Based learning, supplemented by church-based discussions. In the same way that I need to take responsibility for my own life, I am responsible for my own learning.

Elder David A. Bednar taught: “As learners, you and I are to act and be doers of the word and not simply hearers who are only acted upon. Are you and I agents who act and seek learning by faith, or are we waiting to be taught and acted upon? … A learner exercising agency by acting in accordance with correct principles opens his or her heart to the Holy Ghost and invites His teaching, testifying power, and confirming witness. Learning by faith requires spiritual, mental, and physical exertion and not just passive reception” (“Seek Learning by Faith,” Ensign, Sept. 2007, 64).

What have you always wanted to learn? I use to take a class each year after I graduated from college, just to keep up with continual learning, and stretching my mind. My first class was learning to paint with watercolor. Now I read a myriad of books on different subjects and peruse the computer. I just found out that July is world water color month! And I have a new paintbrush!! Join me in learning something new. Or, it is also National Ice Cream month. If you’d rather.