A House of Learning - January

I did a lot of things in January to establish my home as "a house of learning." Most of these things were super free.

1. Ice skating

I don't do a lot of physical learning, but when the opportunity presents itself, I'm all game. Though I have ice skated before, I always struggle to get started again. Usually, I spend all my time thinking through the laws of physics and how I can speed up and slow down and turn and not fall over. My friends giggled at me because every time they skated past I was bending my knees, hunkering down, and whispering, "Physics, physics, physics."

2. International cinema

I attended a showing of a 1925 silent Danish film called Master of the House. It was a great picture about a man learning compassion for his wife and sharing the chores. But Mads, his former nanny, was by the far the best character. See her here, overlooking the love that she has encouraged.

The literal translation of the title is Thou Shalt Honor Thy Wife.

Go, 1925!

3. Organization workshop

I went to an organization workshop at my library one Thursday night, and while I was definitely the youngest and most single person in the room, I learned a lot about managing my things, including such tips as only keep collectible items that you can easily display (minimally) and collect containers to put things in. This education was an important part of my 2016 resolution to establish a house of order! And, of course, it was totally free.

4. Weekly devotional/forum

Every Tuesday, I watched the campus devotional. I learned about building divine relationships by being both a learner and a lifter, about seeking to know truth by study and faith and context, and about using my fears as opportunities to exercise faith and good works. In the forum by Liz Wiseman, I learned about being a multiplier, or someone who increases the intelligence of those around them by providing chances to learn and try and grow. And I learned to give myself such chances, too. I'm also including President and Sister Nelson's worldwide devotional here, too, where I learned about the true definition of being a millennial and preparing the kingdom of God for Christ's return.

Ghost helped me take notes.

5. Weekly reading series

Every Friday, I attended a reading on campus. I go to readings to hear the beautiful sounds of words and to collect trinkets of inspiration and motivation for my own writing. The first reading was performed by Brent Newsom, a poet who did wonderful things with narrative as the poems shared glimpses of a small town. The second reading came from Joni Tevis, a delightful essayist whose attention to detail and unusual settings ignited ideas in my mind. Seriously, all my notes from her reading are notes for my own stories. The third reading was the most radical: Craig Dworkin read a poem that made me fall in love with my language all over again. He read through dictionary definitions of words, and then dictionary definitions of the words in those definitions, and so on and so on, several layers in. The perfect language would not be so complicated. A single word would be its own definition. But the imperfection of English makes it so rich and beautiful.

5. BOOKS

This year, I set a 25-book goal for my Goodreads challenge. I've read 13 books so far. Whoops! Perhaps I should have set my sights higher. Regardless, I have loved every book.

All books appear here except one: the audiobook I listened to.

I read one picture book, two graphic novels, four novels, four memoirs, and one book of essays, and then I listened to a Charles Dickens audiobook.