hobbies – Late Blooms

It's not the teaching, it's the learning. ~ Sly Stone — **It’s not the teaching, it’s the learning. ~ Sly Stone**

Opportunities abound everywhere and at every age to get involved in activities that involve learning. We don’t have to be in school to learn. In fact, most learning takes place outside the classroom. I had reason to reflect on the challenge of learning this past week as I set myself to the task of using a new program for making my collages. There was an element of fear within me. The fear was there because I didn’t know how they would turn out. I had got used to the old way of making collages. I decided to throw all caution to the wind. As Nehru says: “The policy of being too cautious is the greatest risk of all.”

There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning. ( Jiddu Krishnamurti)”

When I worked with the Toronto Board of Education, at one time as I recall, their slogan was “Lifelong Learning.” We’re never too old to learn something that interests us. Many senior citizens take courses long after their school days are over. Many more take up hobbies of various kinds and learn new things on their own or through the internet. It is a big fallacy to think that because people are retired, they sit around all day doing nothing. Henry Ford said: “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”

You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over. ~~ Richard Branson — **You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.**
**~~ Richard Branson**

As a senior citizen myself, I’m delighted to have this time to pursue interests that I already had more extensively. I’m also happy to have the opportunity to learn and pursue hobbies that I didn’t have any inkling would be interesting and exciting to me. For instance, taking photographs is one of those things that I do all the time now for fun – even though it was not one of my early life pursuits. This hobby arose around the same time that I was exposed to blogging and the two complemented each other.

“The education of a man is never completed until he dies.” ― Robert E. Lee — **“The education of a man is never completed until he dies.”**
**― Robert E. Lee**

Whether it’s art, music, academic pursuits, or some other activity, it’s all good “lifelong learning.” Learning also helps to keep you feeling young. Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the infinite, so long are you young. — Samuel Ullman

**It is better to learn late than never. ~ Publilius Syrus**

The above collages are some of the new kinds of collages I have been learning and I hope you enjoyed seeing them.