Our Learning is a Craft, Episode 170
To be human is to learn... but very often our learning is made much more difficult by narratives of shame, or our demands for perfection, or our worries about not being welcomed by others in our unfinishedness. Learning is both what we are made for, and among the most difficult endeavours of our lives, particularly the learning about ourselves that requires ongoing patience, generous kindness, and rigorous attention and self-observation. But when we start to see learning as a never-finished practice, new horizons can open up for us.
This episode of Turning Towards Life is a conversation about what can happen when we see our lives as an ongoing path, and learning as a craft, hosted as always by Lizzie Winn and Justin Wise of Thirdspace.
This is Turning Towards Life, a weekly live 30 minute conversation hosted by Thirdspace in which Justin Wise and Lizzie Winn dive deep into big questions of human living. Find us on FaceBook to watch live and join in the lively conversation on this episode. We’re also on YouTube, and as a podcast on Apple, Google and Spotify. You can find videos of every episode, and more about the project on the Turning Towards Life website.
Our source this week is brought to us by Lizzie, and written by Kae Tempest, from their book On Connection.
Our Learning is a Craft
I can’t summon connection down from the ether and expect it to land in my lap. But I can do everything in my power to create a welcoming environment for it when it does decide to show up. This is the same for self-awareness. I can’t expect deep revelations about the content of my character or my life’s trajectory, or why I tend to do X when challenged by Y - to just pop by when I’m frying onions. I have to put in a great deal of work to notice my own behaviour and even more if I am hoping to transform it. It’s a craft. The work that I do on myself may not be evident in my daily exchanges, but little by little If I continue, I hope that my actions will reflect my changing mindset and next time, I promise myself I’ll do things differently. Getting on top of my shortcomings is not immediate; it’s endless. It takes constant application. And even after years of it, I might think I have cracked it until I find myself reflected through the lens of a relationship, and I realise I am in exactly the same spot that was in years before. Repeating the same mistakes, apparently treading water the whole time.
– Kae Tempest
Photo by Roman Kraft on Unsplash