Learning

We never stop learning. Even as we take our dying breath we are learning about death itself. Learning does not cease as soon as we have left school. In many ways it is just beginning. Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel. We may not even be conscious of it. Or we may have an active thirst for knowledge however we are constantly learning. Mahatma Gandhi once said;

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”

What a very good way to live one’s life.

Sometimes it takes something unique to jolt a person from their narrow outlook. Like a brush with death. Many people who have endured a near death experience say their lives are changed forever as a result. Nothing looks the same anymore. They will say things like “I never saw the majesty and beauty of a simple tree before, it was just a tree. Now I marvel at the tree and at the wonder of living things.”

To many this is a closed off world. They live their lives under a spiritual rock, never seeing the beauty in things. Only seeing the world through a very narrow perspective. What a pity to only learn this when it is time to leave this world.

Yet despite all this learning throughout our lives we will end up knowing so very little. Is that why eastern religion so much favours the concept of returning again and again to this life until we truly know and understand it? As Voltaire said;

“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.”

Life is for living, loving and learning and this is food for our very soul.

In my life I try to take time to really look and examine and appreciate nature. Then in my work I try to replicate that beauty. I spend a lot of time looking deeply at my fish in their beautiful environment and it is true I learn something new about them each and every day.