As evidenced in the last couple of posts, I’ve been noticing how my life is changing/growing recently. This reminded me of a passage from the Camelot musical that impacted me as a kid. The wizard Merlin impressed upon young Arthur that a great skill for coping with sadness is to strive to learn something. In my own experience, I’ve found this to be very true. Beyond that, I find that unless I am actively learning something, I’m just not the same individual. I have less drive, less joie de vivre as I do when I’m actually learning something.
It’s not a cure-all, however: Focusing on learning to the point of forgetting to actually engage in life will also backfire. It is tempting to think that with just a little more knowledge suddenly the path will open for you and it’ll be smooth sailing. Unfortunately, this is almost never the case.
(On a side-note: You do get experiences like that, but they tend to happen when you’re putting forth the effort and engaging life. Suddenly, a new bit of knowledge makes your efforts much easier and/or more effective. Book learning and hands-on learning are compliments, not opposites.)
When I occasionally feel overwhelmed at life, one thing which I tend to do is to ask myself what I’m learning. This is actually a bit of a sucker play: The act of doing so starts a process of analyzing what’s going on in life for new lessons. That and a review of what I am/have been learning recently remind me that I am still moving forward in my journey, and that while I may feel like a becalmed ship, the currents are still taking me where I want to go.
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