Playing with learning

Once there was a little discussion on facebook where I said that Learn Nothing Day was like a game, and you join in by showing you know how it works. In response to a question, then, about whether it's a holiday or a game, I wrote:

Well... it's a holiday when people demonstrate what they've learned about learning by attempting not to learn, which is kind of a science experiment and kind of a festival and sort of a game. More than one thing is happening.

Learn Nothing Day is July 24
photo by Sandra Dodd, on a carousel in Austin, Texas

The scent of life

Be willing to appreciate a scent that reminds you of something soothing.


Recently it smelled like the mountains right outside my front door. Later I read that the wind of the day before had blown the wintery pollution out of the valley, and that's what I smelled—the air from the nearby mountains on a frosty day.

Baby powder gave me good memories another day.

A Loud, Peaceful Home ("Smell your child's hair. ...")
photo by Sandra Dodd
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Tend to living things

"If you need meaning in your life, let it be your family and the things you love. Let it be in building calm and peace in your home for your partner, your children, your pets, your plants. Tend to living things that you can feed, and nourish, and help thrive. If you must tend to your causes too, do so without outrage."

—Deb Lewis

Be dignified
photo by Karen James

Eating

Karen James to her son Ethan:

I'm going to the store. Do you want anything special?

Ethan, after a pause:

Yeah. Lettuce.

Karen:

Lettuce?

Ethan:

Yeah, lettuce...and other good snack food like that.

Karen:

Okay.

SandraDodd.com/food.html
photo by Jo Isaac
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Transitions

There's something unsettling about transitions. Sit, or stand. Not halfway up. Be single, or be in a relationship, not kind of sort of. But life has gradual changes all the time. We don't want the sun to just come up suddenly, or go down instantly.

Luckily, the sun doesn't change directions, or sit thinking for a few days about whether to continue.

Be patient with yourself and others. Growing and changing are normal parts of natural life.

Thoughts on Changing
photo by Amy Milstein

Juxtaposition

I like the word "juxtaposition." I like the look of it, the sound of it, and the meaning. It's not a matched set, and it's not about opposites. When things are together (by design or by happenstance) and there's something surprising or quirky about it, thoughts twirl and leap.

New combinations
photo by Holly Dodd, of lily pads, in the desert
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Nourished and strengthened

Pam Sorooshian, on a way to step up peace and focus:

There are times in life that you won't feel like you can take care of others around you as well as you'd like. You need nurturing yourself and other people's neediness starts to be draining on you.

I've felt that, too.

But I've also found that if I focus more on "seeing" my kids with loving-eyes focus, consciously choose to pay attention to what I love about them, then I actually begin to feel more nourished and strengthened by them, and by the very acts of caring for them.

—Pam Sorooshian

SandraDodd.com/breathing.html
(photo by a realtor in Scotland)
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