learning new things

At the spiritual directors training residency in May, one of my fellow students spoke of his commitment to learn something new every 6 months. He has MS, and believes that making new brain pathways is particularly important for people who have MS. He had learned new things varying from New Testament Greek to Yoga--the more different, the better.

I grew up in a family where the idea of adults learning new things was not seen as anything but embarrassing. There was a certain standardized set of skills (riding a bike, swimming...) that it was very important to learn as a child. But that isn't where I want to be any more, in fact I realized part of the appeal of running to me is that I haven't done it before, while I'm not likely to do anything on a bicycle that I haven't already done when I was into cycling in college. I rode a century ride then, a recreation of the first organized century ride.