Cycles of Learning

Circular, that is time. We live in a world dominated by linear functions, our calendar reads left to right, start to finish. There is little left of the cycles we once relied upon as a species to guide our functions from day to day, week to week, month to month, season to season, year to year. Instead we rely upon days, minutes, hours… seconds, to remind us of the time we have lost or wasted, or perhaps the time we have saved. But in that reliance, we’ve forgotten to be in the moment. We are always living for the last or the next moment, and we have relinquished any savoring of the here and now.

But circular is also to remind us, it is how we grow, change, develop. How we learn more about ourselves and the world we live in. Because, circular brings us on the same paths time and again so we may recognize, familiarize, choose another path, find a deeper meaning, forgive, forget, remember or cherish. These paths always have a purpose.

I found one of those paths today, it was quite poignant really. I am participating in a 100-day challenge through a teleclass. In this challenge we have to decide what our ‘game’ is, that is what we want to achieve, our goal. We laid out the goals today in a brief introduction… and mind for the 100 days is to create. I wish to create three things a day – something visual (as in drawing, painting, etc), something written (be it blog, letter, email, etc so long as it pulls at my creativity), and something physical (as in relationship building – be it between me and another person or me and a horse, or dog, or cat..). So, I began by creating my creative space. My room has been an absolute disaster, really since I moved home from Seattle – which is verging on two years. I found I had a fabulous creative space when I was living out west, but I wasn’t certain how to recreate that when I came back to Wisconsin.. until today. My creativity has been electrically charged lately, from a combination of sources, and it seemed to come naturally to design my space today.

So, as I was recreating my creative space, I found myself reconnecting with a cycle. That of creating that I had when I was living in Seattle, and it was wonderful. I ran from day to night on this constant energetic surge, I created words, art, and relationships. I did this every day, all three things. So in a way, I am reconnecting with purpose, to a cycle I once habituated.

I also got to thinking, as I was going through many of the piles of information I have stashed pertaining to riding and training, how it is interesting that often we can be fairly oblivious, or at least not have the appreciation or understanding of the importance of a bit of information that has been given to us, until after a round about of life brings us an understanding equal to or surpassing that previous bit of information. Then we rediscover that information, and I think… it was here all along. I always had it, but I couldn’t see it. I think that was frequently with the horses, that everything we need is here all along, we just cannot see it yet. It uncovers itself at the right moment, when we are ready to learn, or when we have learned enough or become aware enough to understand it’s importance, it’s qualities.

So, a laid back blog tonight, my last bit of creating for the day. I will admit I haven’t yet created anything visual yet today, which I am sorely upset about, but I did work to reconnect with my cat Leroy.. who I think has been feeling a bit dejected with a house full of guests. He is such a love, and I feel terrible when he gets neglected, so here’s to creating my cat-relationship today. :) Goodnight!