Falling & Growing

I’m remembering a conversation I had with author Stephen Jenkinson (Die Wise) on a drive from Western MA to Lexington – on route to give a talk at LexCE. I’m forgetting the question he asked, but my answer had to do with the equivalency between All and Nothing. Basically saying that nothing much mattered in the final analysis.  “That’s a cop-out” Stephen replied. We drove on in silence under a canopy of autumn colors and over narrow winding mountain roads for a while. He was right. Large living has to do with small and specific action and attention as much as it has to do with grand philosophy. Maybe more. Getting lost in the act and art of something specific is a way of being found as a connected and interdependent co-creator of the story of our lives. Hopefully perhaps we will be remembered for the things we loved to do at least as much as for the friends and family members we leave behind. Q: “What did she love to do?” A: “She loved reading and writing poetry.”  Q: “What did he love to study?” A: “The stars.”  Hopefully somehow we will live on as much in those topics that we worked and wrestled with as we’ll live on through our descendents and friends. This summer I think I figured out a response to the question of the tree falling in the forest and whether, with no one near, it makes a sound or not. I think it’s the wrong question. I think that the fact that t/here IS a forest where trees grow and fall is the point and answer. That there is THIS place to explore and touch, taste, see, and hear is the point and answer. The experience of the brevity and beauty of being in this place of growing and falling is the reason for every season. And here we are, beginning again with new autumn class opportunities for sensory, intellectual, and communal experience. Taking a class, learning something new with others, buckling down and asking the brain to go through the pain of learning a new language or instrument…asking the body to bend and stretch and move with yoga, tai chi, or dance…action and engagement is the antidote for so much. Our autumn classes stand as an invitation to fall in love (again or anew…but it’s always “anew”) with some topic that reflects and resonates the best vision of oneself….falling as a way of growing is one way to define the process of education. Registration is open and we look forward to seeing you in the ever changing, growing and falling, colorful, experiential, and specific season of autumn.