Back to School

I am back in school this year. After twenty-seven years of planning and preparing for students, I am buying books from my required reading lists and posting replies to discussion boards. 

I have always loved learning but have preferred my own curation of books and courses. What that does not provide, however, is a community within which to learn. I am pursuing a certificate in spiritual direction, and community will be crucial to my learning. 

Recently during a walk with a friend, she asked how I was feeling about starting school. I replied, “Well, it’s reading and writing, and I do that a lot on my own anyway, so I think I will be fine.”

Later that same day, I was not fine when I received seven emails from my graduate program—God’s sense of humor reigns. My ease quickly turned to dis-ease as I spent time reading multiple pages of syllabi, book lists, and overviews of papers and discussions.

I had an immediate empathy for my children and all the years of starting school in the fall. It can be overwhelming and uncomfortable to look at what is required and looming. That is the way with beginning again until I remind myself of how God has been leading me here. This confidence in Him is the total trust that my way has been prepared. An example of that preparation came in the form of our first assignment. We had to prepare a three-minute self-introduction. I knew this would be an anxious challenge for many as I have been teaching students to do it for over fifteen years. It still wasn’t an easy assignment, but it was familiar.

Class began last week, and already, I am learning the characteristics of my limits. I do not see my limits as limiting but as what is mine to notice, highlight and hold. My eyes cannot see it all, so I must focus like a camera lens on what gets my attention for retention. I cannot hear it all, so I must tune into what resonates and creates dissonance.  

What is getting my attention through the lens of this course? I am celebrating my past experiences – coaching young swimmers, serving as a naval officer, assisting women in their labor and delivery, and guiding volunteers in personal growth, all confirming this next step’s goodness and clarity. These past experiences resonate with some of the concepts in our first read, Holy Listening by Margeret Guenther,

So here I am back in school and celebrating the learning and relearning of ideas like the slow cadence of building trust, the inherent reality that I can only provide probing questions, never answers for others, and the empowerment of sharing your story with another. 

What are you learning these days?