Practice Makes Perfect

For Christmas my parents gave me a Beginners' Knitting Kit.  All I need to learn how to knit in one convenient package!  I have been looking through all the materials and the book, but it seems I am supposed to supply not only the yarn but the patience to learn this new skill as well.  Maybe it's just because I was a little distracted when I tried to teach myself yesterday, but I decided that I'm going to see if some of my friends here might be willing to help me get started with the basics.  Many times in my life this is how I get started on different things.  I have an idea about something I want to try, figure out the basics of how to try it, but then decide it might be better to seek the knowledge of someone who actually knows what they are doing.  My mom has always said I'm a mimic.  She could apparently tell who I hung out with on the monkey bars on any given day based on my speech patterns (or attitude choices) when I was home later that day.  My goal is to balance a life of authentic experiences of my own while not reinventing the wheel every time a new opportunity presents itself.  Through watching my friends and family, watching fun movies, reading inspiring text, and learning from my past experiences - both negative and positive - I am starting to believe that I have a good idea of where to go, what to do, and how to behave in the next few chapters, or maybe just sentences, in my life.

A little insight to my basic principles of how I try to live my life: do unto others what I would want done to me; take time to look around and appreciate and internalize the beauty surrounding me regardless of my actual physical surroundings; give love freely; find deep, actual gratitude for the small things that bring much joy into our lives; do what I can, where I am, with what I have.  I mention this because I have to remind myself of these things on a daily basis.  Today I was walking in the outdoor art gallery in Port Angeles and was so immersed in the stealthy art pieces in the tree branches that I almost missed a simple, but comforting, piece under my feet.  A small stone with waves on it fortunately caught my eye and I was indeed reminded to take the time to look around.

I have a few days left of winter break, and as refreshing and rejuvenating this time has been I feel like I am ready to be back to work.  The four months that I have been living and working in Port Angeles and surrounding areas has only made it even more clear to me that I deeply desire to be working with students, especially those who may not have all the support or resources or love that they should from their home lives. In addition to working with the students I have very much enjoyed working on projects that benefit members of the community that I am living in, as well as working and playing in natural areas of this beautiful part of the Earth.  Feeling the dirt between my fingers and taking deep, exhilarating, exciting and relaxing breaths of fresh, salty air makes me remember why I take those seemingly small and insignificant measures to reduce my impact on Earth's natural resources and ecosystems.

That being said, there are so many times when I have very little or no patience with myself for not getting things "right" in regards to my work or personal life.  SO many times I think about a better way to explain something to one of my students or a better response to the various people I interact with or what I wish I might have done in the past so that maybe, maybe, I could be living an "adult" life right now complete with higher rent, a possible car payment, enough money that I could actually buy those super cute heels, and the time and resources to actually start traveling.  Then I realize that none of those would be a given if I my job and life were different right now.  And I also realize that I do frequently look to the teachers around me for ideas about how to explain words or concepts to the students, and that this in turn helps me prepare for the next time a student asks me for help on something that I have not explained before.  Mimicking at its finest?

I know I'll continue to work on living out my ideals I wrote above.  As long as I have an idea about how I want to live my life I feel like I at least have a somewhat cleared path to meander along.  And when I take the time to look up and notice the beauty around me I might be pleasantly surprised by sights like this view that I saw on ly walk in the art today:

When I looked closely and intently, I could see the snow capped mountains of Vancouver Island.  As for the knitting, when I told one friend about the "learning to knit" kit I was given he replied "Oh, so everyone will be getting scarves for Christmas next year?"  I looked at him with a smile and replied "No way!  Hats, sweaters, shawls, mittens!  I'm gonna practice and practice and practice and get good at this new hobby!"  Hopefully I'll be lucky and have some guidance from some friends so I actually can practice to make perfect (gifts).

Happy New Year!  May 2011 find you happy, healthy and peaceful!