Grandpa's Garden: Ways To Learn

In this region, the new school year has begun. I’ve been thinking about the young people who are adjusting to new schools, classmates, teachers, and curriculum. Times of adjustment can feel disorienting. After a few weeks, everything will seem routine. New friendships will form, the rhythm of classes will evolve, and interest in athletics and other activities will come to life. Everything will progress into learning about oneself, exploring an ever-expanding world, and acquiring life’s wisdom. 

Whenever we engage in something for the first time, we may scramble to apply what we already know to cope with the new situation. How can I use what I know to discover what is yet to be known? I have my mother’s grade school writing tablet and a wood-framed black slate chalkboard about ten by twelve inches in size dating to the 1920s. We might call it an early twentieth-century laptop. 

Read, Think, Study 

Before the start of the school year, my young grandsons had received detailed classroom materials lists, including proper writing instruments, binders, and notebooks in appropriate colors; they will also use electronic devices that are now indispensable for learning outcomes. 

The Spiritual Life 

What do we need to dispose ourselves to learn in the spiritual life? Perhaps this could be a partial list: an open mind, a listening heart, a loving vision, a forgiving nature, a patient style, and trust in the presence of the Spirit of God. We trust the Spirit to move, invite, challenge, nudge, and call us forward in freedom to an unfolding, maturing relationship. The Spirit draws us into the energy of Creation, where God graces us to become the self He calls us to be. 

The Work Of Faith 

Every prayer is a renewal, an opportunity, every meditation an opening to new insight, and every contemplative moment is a visitation of love. All of these proceed from God’s grace, which empowers us to conform to His will. 

“If you are willing to listen, you will learn; if you give heed, you will be wise.” (Sirach 6:33) 

I don’t think our faith ever stands still. The minute progress of a plant’s growth is imperceptible, yet we understand it is continuously growing, coming to life, ultimately producing its blossom and yielding its fruit. 

“…the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, gentle, compliant, full of mercy and good fruits,…” (James 3:17) 

Let us pray in our families for the grace to grow in wisdom and faith in all the moments of our lives.