Whew! It has been a busy week! Everything just seems to take a little longer these days. I think we are still in survival mode… even though it’s been almost a year since we moved out here to the country. I can’t believe how time has flown! So many changes, so much to learn. Learning. It’s what I’ve been musing about this week. If any of you have been with me since the beginning, you’ll know that mittonmusings.com was born out of a desire to continue learning… to understand how posts, blogging and all that jazz works. I can say that I have, indeed, learned a lot over the years. We created landing pages, contests, social media platforms, and many of you followed along during 30 Days of Blessings. That was fun!

I can honestly say that moving to a new town also had some learning curves. For one, everything closes so early here. We have adjusted our schedule to get shopping done, and meet the school bus at the very early morning pick up. Let me tell you, for us nighthawks, that first week of classes was tough! Yet, here we are at the end of the school year, and I can barely sleep in on weekends now! (I refuse to be a morning person, I refuse to be a morning person, I refuse to be a morning person…) Learning to have the hubby working from home and juggling our time together with less kids hanging around has been an adjustment. Simply knowing where to store stuff in a new house is sometimes a challenge! So much change. Not to say that change is bad. In fact, I think learning to change, adapt and grow is vital to life. You need it. Even if it’s hard — it’s important.

Often, that change is a struggle. Like the old song says, you can’t go over it and you can’t go under it. Sometimes, you just have to go through it to learn. You trudge along, make mistakes, get messy and manage with some trial and error. When we had our kids, they didn’t come with instruction manuals. We just had to learn. Then the next kid came along and all the rules changed. We had to learn what worked for that child. We were crazy enough to do it four times, each with a new set of adventures to learn! Even when the chicks arrived… I read, researched and tried to study… but I am still googling things and watching videos! Did you know that chickens must “learn” to roost at night? I just got back from putting them to “bed” and they were all huddled in the corner. I tried lifting them up one by one on the roosting bars… but a chicken’s brain is little. It’s going to take some practice. We shall keep learning together.

Humans have been learning together for years. Some of us are better at it than others. Our youngest had to do a year end project on a person or people who have “changed the world” as we know it because they did something. I wonder if any major changes have happened recently that future generations will do school projects on. Covid-19 world-wide pandemic anyone? I’m not much of a history buff, but time has a way of creating learning curves for the human race… whether we like it or not. It’s all part of God’s plan!

I was struck recently about the disciples and the early church believers and their misunderstandings. We know “it was all part of God’s plan” — but the early church had to go through it. How many times do we hear Jesus saying they just didn’t get it? Not that His parables were so cut and dry, mind you. Can we blame a few fisherman who see and hear things they could never have imagined and expect them to fully understand what was happening? Who would believe that such a great leader and teacher would allow His own arrest and crucifixion? And for it to all be part of the plan?! I am convinced it was a difficult learning curve for the followers to comprehend. Good grief! It’s hard for us to understand and we have it all laid out for us in black and white! Still, we continue to learn.

What about you, my friend? Are you in a season of real learning? Perhaps, you are the one teaching and getting frustrated with your students. Be patient. It takes time for some of us to “get it”. Often we have to struggle through it. Some of us have to be taught it over and over. Others just seem to have the gift of easy understanding. Nevertheless, we all must keep learning. Learning and growing and changing and adapting. It’s the way the Potter needs to shape the clay. It’s the way the vine and the branches get pruned and new growth starts. Fruit blooms from the new growth when our attentions are snipped and focused. Sometimes, we have to be taught to roost and rest at night. We need to be shown how to relax and not huddle in a corner. Yes, my beloveds, life is learning. Let’s share the journey together, shall we? We’ll meet back here again soon!