Learning Time

Look closely at this photo. The "Y" is made up of new students standing in the football stadium bleachers!

Today was my first day of school. BYU actually began their classes yesterday, but this semester I teach all four of my classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I have Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to do research and other things. It will be nice.

First days are always exciting. Seeing all those young, beautiful faces out there and knowing that in a few weeks they will be my new friends energizes me. I love it.

But it is also fun as the semester wears on to see the personalities of the students come out. I have the most interesting, talented, and wonderful students. They constantly amaze me.

But once in a great while there is a student who amazes me in negative ways like one student today who kept rolling his eyes in obvious disagreement and questioning the things I said--and mostly what we did today was go over the expectations for the class. I already know he isn't going to like my class. And that makes me think about how many times I've gone into a situation where I could have learned so much, but my negative or prideful attitude kept me from learning and enjoying.

Mind you, I have over 220 students and that was the only one who was openly negative. But I learned something from him and I'm excited about the more positive things I'm going to learn from the other 219 students during the semester. I'm not sure who learns the most in my classes, the students or me!

Commemorating Easter

As I did last year, I am going to be commemorating the last week of the Savior’s life here on Good News! After all, that is the Good News! So as we approach Easter week, I’ll repeat some of what I said last year and I’ll add some things to it. But I’m going to start with the same thing and that is to ask you to forget all you know about the last week of the Savior’s life. I know that sounds strange, but I have my reasons and three of them are:

(1) Since we were small children we have been learning about Jesus Christ so that what we now believe about Him is a composite of years and years of accumulated knowledge; some of that knowledge is accurate and some not. But the inaccurate is not necessarily the problem. Often the accurate is the problem because we have heard it so much and so often we don’t REALLY hear it any more. The words pass through our minds but we don’t think about what they mean let alone feel them deep in our hearts. So pretend you know nothing and let the wonder of it all amaze you.

(2) When you read or listen with an empty mind you hear old things in new ways. You will understand differently. Insights will come to fill the places you have emptied in your head.

(3) When you listen with an empty mind you are more open to learning with not just your mind but also your heart. Too often our mind actually gets in the way of learning because it starts shouting “But” or “If only” or “That can’t be” and the shouting that goes on keeps us from hearing the whisperings of the heart. Paul teaches, “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:16-17).

Easter is the season of newness and the greatest gift you can give to yourself this season is to partake of the newness. So empty your mind and begin this adventure by simply savoring the thought that Jesus Christ makes all things new—even you.

Listen. Learn. Laugh. Love.

I’ve been very busy the last few days and I’ve missed you.

On Friday and Saturday I attended a wonderful conference

that lasted all day both days, and I learned so much.

 It was wonderful.

It is delightfully surprising to me that when I learn anything new

I suddenly find that thing every place I turn.

For example, I learn a new vocabulary word and for the next few days

 I hear it or read it all over the place.

Well in this conference that had nothing to do with Living in Truth

 I found several things that I loved about Living in Truth.

In one of the breakout sessions a man was talking about a woman

who had influenced his life

and he said that she once told him that whatever you encounter in life

 you need to listen to it to make sure you understand,

learn all you can from it,

laugh at yourself in it,

 and love it.

That pretty well sums up what it takes to Live in Truth!

So I’m sharing today the Four Ls:

Listen. Learn. Laugh. Love.

Informal Church

Ben got himself ready for church.

We made it home! There's more snow in Everette, Washington, than there is in Utah! Even though we were snowed in and didn't get to do the things we'd planned, we had a wonderful time. Especially touching for me was having our own church service. We sang, we prayed, and each one of us gave a short talk. It was wonderful to hear my young grandchildren bear testimony of Jesus Christ and of the restoration of the gospel. It was exiting to learn from them. And that reminded me of something I'd read from Elder Henry B. Eyring many years before that I looked up again this morning.

In his book To Draw Closer to God, Elder Eyring tells about how we can learn from anyone in any situation and then he relates the story of a time when he was young and found himself bored during a Sacrament meeting. But as he looked at his father, a highly intelligent academic and a master of the scriptures, he was amazed to see him deeply engrossed in the talk.

When walking home from church with his father, Elder Eyring took the opportunity to ask his father what he thought about the meeting and his father said it was wonderful. Puzzled, Elder Eyring tried to summon the courage to ask how it was wonderful when his father, as if reading his mind, started to laugh. "Hal, let me tell you something. Since I was a very young man, I have taught myself to do something in a church meeting. When the speaker begins, I listen carefully and ask myself what it is he is trying to say. Then, once I think I know what he is trying to accomplish, I give myself a sermon on that subject."  They walked on in silence for a moment and then his father said, "Hal, since then I have never been to a bad meeting."

Since I read that, I've come to realize that I have a responsibility to learn and that no matter who is teaching I can learn if I have the spirit with me. Sunday, in a very informal meeting, I learned from a five year old and a nine year old more about what it means to be a child of God.

What Grizelda's Taught Me

Here in Utah it is a cold blustery day—the perfect day to cuddle up in my favorite chair covered in my favorite blanket and read a good book. But there are errands to run, meals to be fixed, drawers to be cleaned out, bills to be paid, lessons to prepare, and of course a BYU basketball game to be watched. There are always so many things to do and such little time to do them. But going through the battle with Grizelda brought me face to face with the possibility that time will run out and so I’d better use it to gather as much knowledge and make as many beautiful memories as possible because that’s all I’ll take with me—knowledge and memories.

So what will I do today? The errands first because that means getting the food for D5’s birthday dinner tomorrow. (That will be a new memory to take with me!) Next preparing a lesson for tomorrow. (That means gaining new knowledge.) And watching the game is a must because my grandson is coming to watch it with me. (Big time memory!) But I’ll also spend at least a few minutes in the chair wrapped in my favorite blanket because that is both gaining knowledge and making a warm fuzzy memory. And the rest of the things on the list will get done if there is time. 

But I’m not going to fret over them! 

I’ll just fit them into the left-over minutes if I can.

Curiosity Hasn't Killed This Cat. . .Yet

I have been blessed (or cursed as it sometimes seems) with an incredible curiosity. I always want to know why and what and how and can’t rest until I find answers. That means I’m hardly ever at rest. Some of my daughters have that same curiosity, but D3 coupled that with an acute stubbornness. She is also very bright.

One day we took the girls out to Vernal to see the dinosaur fields and after a fun time learning and exploring started back to our hotel. As we traversed the desolate miles of nothing but sage brush, we suddenly came upon a fire hydrant on the side of the road.  Surprised, I exclaimed, “What is a fire hydrant doing in the middle of no place?”

D3, who was five years old at the time, immediately spoke up, “How can there be a middle if it is no place?” I tried to explain about figures of speech and what it meant, but she was stuck in the literalness of the statement. Frustrated, she kept asking questions and I kept trying to explain. But it was to no avail. Finally she burst into tears and cried, “No place can’t have a middle!”

I agreed and left it at that. But I’ve thought of that experience so many times since then. She now has five children who ask the questions and she answers them a lot better than I ever did, but I’ve learned that curiosity and questioning can be great blessings in life. While it sometimes drives the people we ask our questions to mad, it makes life so much more interesting. I hope I never lose my curiosity.

Learning and Growing

One of the hardest things to deal with after deciding that one is going to live in Truth occurs when other people confront you with “You should do” or “You shouldn’t have done” accusations. It is one thing to recognize Pit of Illusion thinking and counter the incorrect thinking when you are doing it to yourself, but when other people throw it at you it is difficult to know how to handle it. One of the things that makes it so hard is that usually the people who do this to you are people close to you—family or close friends or in other words people you love and who you want to love you back.

The automatic reaction in a situation like that is to think, “They shouldn’t be saying those things to me.” (If you aren’t laughing at the irony in that, read it again and have yourself a good laugh!) This reaction comes from the normal human reaction of “should and shouldn’ts” but added to it is your newfound resolve and knowledge about how that kind of thinking is Illusion. So you get a double whammy on this one.

It is also difficult to sit there and take the criticism as people catalog your failings and tell you what you should and should not have done especially because we are all human and we all make mistakes which often means that the very things the other person is telling you that you should or should not have done are things they are guilty of also. Therefore, knowing the other person has done the very same thing fuels the fires of Illusion thinking.

This is one of the areas I’m working hard on, but there are a few things that I’m discovering that help in these situations. One is to use the Truth Tool Humor and recognize how funny the situation is. I tend to take these kinds of confrontations much too seriously at the time, but when I step back and see how absurd some of the statements being made are I realize I can cry about it or laugh. Laughing is much more enjoyable.

Like I say, I’m still working on this one and hoping to grow and overcome more. That’s one of the wonders of life. No matter how old we are, we can still learn and change.

Connecting

The other day with “tongue in cheek” I wrote about being invisible during my book signing adventure. I was trying to be funny, but I think I missed the mark. Maybe it was because I ended by asking for comments about my book Gospel Insights, but instead of comments about the book many of you left comments about me. I’m a little embarrassed that it appeared I was fishing for compliments about myself, but I do appreciate all your kind words. It was very nice of you, and I will treasure the words. But there was something very good that came out of this and it was the insightful advice you gave and how you opened up your own hearts about being invisible. I loved that part of your comments most. It just goes to show how wonderful this blogging world can be.

I sometimes hear women say they can’t “waste time blogging,” and I can see how too much time on the computer would be a problem. But a few minutes a day can be a great blessing. Blogging gives us ways to communicate with each other—to find out what others are thinking and to share our own ideas.

Years ago people sat on their front porches and visited. Or they talked over the fence as they hung out laundry or did other chores. They connected. They spoke their minds and they heard what their friends and neighbors were saying. That connection between human beings is important.

Most of us don’t have front porches now. We don’t hang out laundry or do many chores that keep us outside where we can personally connect. But we can connect through technology. Instead of dismissing technology as a bad thing, we need to use it wisely.

So thank you for making this blog more interactive! I loved your input and hope you will all continue to share with me and others! As a matter of fact, I think from now on when I post something I’ll just imagine myself sitting on the front porch (I’ll have to imagine the front porch, too, since I don’t have one!) waiting for you to come sit in the other rocking chair to have a good visit with me.

On Learning and Breathing

"Learning" by www.sgeier.net/fractals/indexe.php

Last week I spoke at the BYU Women’s Conference on lifelong learning. My first thought when they gave me this assigned topic was “What? That’s like trying to teach someone how to breathe. Doesn’t everyone just do it?” But as I stopped to think about it, I realized that not everyone does. I remembered once hearing a man say that when he graduated from college he promised himself he’d never read another book as long as he lived. That, to me, fit the old adage about not chopping off your nose to spite your face. Learning makes life interesting and fun! It lifts us out of the mundane details of life. Learning opens windows and doors of opportunity and vision. But as I reflected on the topic I realized that one of the saddest things is that some people for one reason or another feel like they can’t learn. That is absolutely not true. Anyone who wants to can learn–we just need to discover in what ways we best learn.
I shared some of the things I’ve learned about my own learning style in my talk. When I want to memorize something, I have to be in motion. I get on the tread mill or I walk up and down the hall. I also learned that when reading I focus better when I place a piece of colored cellophane over the page and read through it. The man who taught me this said the color didn’t matter as long as it was your favorite color. I also know that for me, repetition is necessary, so I type out things I want to learn and tape them all over the house so that I see them often. But the most important thing I’ve come to understand is that the Holy Ghost is an amazing teaching. He has guided my study not only in spiritual matters, but secular. One of the things I did that has been most beneficial is to pray for the Spirit to guide me as to what books I should read. In this way I’ve discovered some books that have changed me in wonderful ways. The Spirit has also guided me to people who have taught me what I needed to know when I needed to know it. President Monson recently said, “Beyond our study of spiritual matters, secular learning is also essential.” It is my firm conviction that God wants us to learn all we can and that anyone can learn if they have the desire and let the Spirit tutor them. Learning makes life more interesting but it also makes us more interesting! Maybe breathing lessons isn’t such a bad idea!

P.S. If you don't know anything about fractals, that is a good place to start learning something new. They are fascinating.