What I Learned in October 2015

For each calendar month, Emily P. Freeman hosts a monthly roundup of what I learned... for October 2015 my highlights include:


1. After the privilege and gift of getting to facilitate Sunday morning bible study for the past few weeks, I learned I still love teaching (no surprise!), and truly enjoyed the participation, response, and compliments!


2. This learning strongly relates to my tendency to be goal-oriented and disciplined, frequently giving up my druthers for a future I know's never a guarantee. I've also been described as "controlled," though not remotely the control freak type people who don't listen carefully sometimes assume that means.

This month I finally learned it's totally okay not to like New England; it's okay not to be neutral or on the fence about New England—or any other place; it's *more than* all right even to dislike a lot about New England.

Backstory: I first saw light of day in the Deep South, and from kindergarten on, I basically grew up in New England, but the kicker is my family of origin was midwestern and southern, didn't live like or talk the same as NE natives, so NE attitudes and suspicions made me into an outlander and an outsider. I do appreciate "all the history," cuz it's impossible not to. I can thank some fabulous schools (and my above-mentioned goal-oriented self-discipline) for a phenomenal education, but despite happily acknowledging Boston as a Great City, NE still is too insular, too provincial, and way far too wicked cold in the winter.


3. During October I did 31 days of free unedited writes and discovered most of what I wrote was fairly complete and finished, and except for the three or four I wrote on one or another of my most frequent topics, they all were about the same length. Aside from correcting auto-correct's mistakes, I easily resisted temptations to edit but on some I wrote some explanation, but not a defense (way to go!). I gradually started varying my presentation style and began including some of my own art and photographs. I wouldn't want to do a month-long writing project of any kind every month, but every two or three months would be cool.


4. Water is life. Water still is life. Water always will be life!