Learn Something New Every Day

In my backyard

Consistency is the key and diversity is the door.

I adore the consistency of my life, but what makes it beautiful and gives it the spice is the diversity I live though.

I often tell people that diversity is not about Kumbaya, can’t we all get along. (And by the way, Kumbaya My Lord, is a spiritual which means “come by here, my Lord.” It was one of the songs used by people who had been enslaved and by the agents of the Underground Railroad. When the song was heard, a station master knew that someone was waiting to join the Freedom Train.)

Diversity in its true sense is about critical thinking. The more you learn and process and learn and process, the more evolved you become. Your life requires new thoughts, new ideas and new actions on a daily basis. If you truly want to be ageless, keep learning. Too often we seek to look and act young, but we want to do it with the same old ideas. Last night, which was a Friday night, I laughed at the remembrance of how when I was younger, I needed to go out on a Friday, just because it was Friday. I laughed until I fell asleep, which didn’t take too long.

When I was younger, I needed the beat of a good song and the laughter of friends to make a Friday a Friday, but last night, the beat of my heart was the only thumping I needed to hear. I woke up early, had time to meditate, pray, think about the future, practice yoga, fall over and have a good laugh. When I got up, I looked out my window and saw a beautiful owl perched in a place I’d never seen one before. I went to my bird book and learned that it was a Screech owl. I got on line and found a group of Georgia birders and made a note to tell my sister Chris who is our resident birder.(Coastal Georgia Birding)

When I first moved to Coastal Georgia, I wanted to live on the ocean. I had moved here from San Diego and lived on the ocean there. I enjoyed the sunrises and sunsets and felt that it was the one thing I would not give up. The realtors here kept trying to sell me on the marsh. “It’s different every day.” They would say. All I could see was tall grass and I told them so. They would clutch their pearls, literally, and give me the all-life-begins-on-the-marsh speech. My eyes would roll back in my head and I kept looking for my ocean address. After a long search I finally found the house that was for me and of course it was on the marsh. The realtors were so right, every day my view is different in color, sounds and life. I wanted to do what I had always done, but I needed to do something completely different and when I did, I was renewed.

·         Learn something new every day. Make an observation and research it.

·         Make a connection between what you learned and your own life.

·         Share the new found knowledge with someone else.

When the student becomes the teacher, the teacher evolves.

The more you learn the more you evolve. Keep learning, keep living.

Bertice Berry, PhD

A new path to wellness