Live Like a Student

It's always amazing to me the people I meet while I'm traveling and teaching, and the lessons I learn from them along the way.

This past weekend I was in Farmington, Utah teaching at the Great Basin Fiber Arts Fair. It's my second year teaching at this event, and it seems each year I'm there, I meet some of the most amazing people and reconnect with ones I see only at festivals.

Some will say it's the teacher who is supposed to teach, but often I find I can learn as much from my students as long as I remain open and receptive. If I were the type of instructor who had a "there's no right way but my way" attitude, that probably wouldn't be the case. Fortunately, that's not my teaching style - nor my style of living.

I say to each class of students "This is what I have found works for me. I've taken a lot of classes, made several mistakes, and this is what works for me. Hopefully it helps you. Maybe it will get you on your way to finding your own technique that works for you. My way is not the be all end all, find what works for you and run with it."

I've learned other techniques from my students, I've learned about lots of things I haven't been familiar with and I learn things about life in general from students who have gone through things I could never imagine. Sometimes they have gone through things similar to what I have, but their perspective and perception of the event is different from mine.

It made me also think about how our perceptions of our life events and childhood memories have shaped us and molded us into the people we are today and the way we react to things and the world around us.

In one particular class, I met a woman who had lost her husband five years ago to cancer, and last year, her father, who also passed away from cancer. In this same class was another woman who was complaining about how her husband's puttering drives her crazy. These women were sitting at the same table. The woman who lost her husband (I like to call her enlightened) said this to the woman who was complaining: "Enjoy every minute and be appreciative he likes to do things and putter." The other woman stated he just got in her way. The enlightened woman's response was "Putter with him."

Do you see that? A woman who treasures everything would probably give almost anything to be able to putter with her husband again, and yet another who sees that trait as annoying. It makes me wonder why. It makes me wonder how a woman who has lost so much can be so positive and supportive, even when those around her are negative about something I call that a gift - a huge gift.

I listened to continuing conversations at that table and while I won't go into every detail, suffice it to say I learned something from these women. Women who had come to my class to learn from me.

I thought about the words the enlightened woman spoke, and at the end of class approached her and thanked her. I said her story touched me and I wish I'd heard her words of wisdom after my dad passed, but truthfully I probably wasn't really ready to hear them until now. She agreed. This student taught me things I'll never forget this past weekend. I'm grateful. I can use her words when things seem to get to me and I can remember to apply those words to my life today.

I think it's important to be a student, even when you haven't signed up for a class. believe it's more important to really look for the good and not complain, not judge, not make demands.

The enlightened woman's take on life is to try lots of new things. It sounds cliche to make the most of the life that's given to us, but cliche or not, it's true. We only have this one life to live. We can all be students each day to help us make it better - to help us learn from one another and make this life all we want it to be. Complaining really doesn't solve a thing - unless you're willing to find a solution to make it better. The truth of the matter is that it's easy to complain. It's harder to look for the good and find solutions. It's harder to be open and listen to other peoples words of wisdom. For some, it's even harder to let go of their ego and be a student every day.

I'm challenging myself to continually remember to live life like a student. To learn from myself, from others, and the world in which I live. I challenge you to do the same, because when we stop learning, we stop growing, and when we stop growing, we become so set in our ways that life and its lessons have little to offer us.