Learning about Learning

Snow

Snowy Oxford

These past few weeks have been really busy and borderline crazy. Gracie and I have moved into our new home. We were warmly welcomed by snow by the foot! It covered our home, yard and sidewalk with a beautiful blanket of white. When i looked out in the morning I felt like I was back in Alaska and I was half-expecting all the neighbors to have Alaskan accents… yet alas, the snow was Alaskan as my day got. England is not used to a few feet of snow and everything seemed to shut down… even the buses that ran to my house. Later in the day they started up again but I was aware the each environment reacts differently and has a different experience when confronted with the same thing.

Our football practice also had to be cancelled. I must admit that I would love to have seen the 30 lads running around in the snow looking for the white ball camouflaged in the snow. However after our 2 hour fun in the snow they would still have to walk the better part of 50 min to their homes in the freezing cold. So football was postponed to this coming week. I was relieved to know that I wouldn’t have to bike or bus during the night. Again in Alaska, this would not have stopped a team from playing but our reaction to a few feet of snow has to take into consideration a whole different aspect of reality, its so new here that we don’t have years of learning to draw upon in reacting to it.

Learning how to learn

Learning in life is very much the same. Sometimes things are so new for us that we haven’t had time to properly prepare ourselves… or more importantly we haven’t had the practice of preparing ourselves. I guarantee you that there is nothing so unique about England that we CAN’T respond in a positive way to a few feet of snow. I think that if it were to continue on like this for a few weeks we would develop methods on how to adapt ourselves and prosper even in new conditions. We would pull out chains for bus tires, we would make more salt available for sidewalks, we would buy shovels and develop the muscle power to use them. We would assume a humble posture of learning and strive.

I think this is a lesson that I need to take to heart… that there are bound to be conditions, experiences, situations and relationships that I am not well suited for. They might make me feel like 4 feet of snow in sunny Kenya. It happens all the time! Right now our beautiful junior youth group, who are from the Nepali community, have been training to be assistant children’s class teachers. They have helped us to start a neighborhood children’s class with their younger brothers/ sisters and friends. Sometimes, it feels really awkward… like we have no idea what is going on… like 24 hours of sunlight in Alaska in December (a shock to the system)… but we keep making the effort and are trying to learn how to learn.