Whatever you practice, you get good at…

Even if it’s just complaining.

—– Just one of the gazillion quotes about practice

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Today I’m reminding myself to practice, remembering the joy.

And there was a lot of joy for me among the rebel chaos, that was my experience of the brand new and modern John Adams Jr. High School in my hometown of Rochester, Minnesota from 1971 to 1974. Joy that took the good boy that was already there, and lay a foundation of creative exploration and a deep desire to see happiness in others. Over the years I’d like to think I built some pretty fine things upon that foundation. An example of one foundational cornerstone set in me, was my interest in art, and specifically ceramics.

Yes, in the seventh grade at JA, I was able to take a class in ceramics where I learned to use a potter’s wheel from a working, professional artist. I then used that potters wheel to make things that I gave to my mother and that made her very happy. Not only that, but the openness of our brand new and modern modular scheduling, gave me the time to develop my skills at wheel thrown pottery at my own pace. Now that I really get into the details, the texture of this memory… It was fantastic! And it led to so much more joy in my later life.

Wow!

Today I’m reminding myself to sit, and breathe… in gratitude.

Upon this reflection, I am so grateful for the brand newness and modernness of the open-ended system those rebellious young professionals were trying to develop. Those rebellious young professionals were essentially trying to give this bunch of teenagers an educational experience with opportunities as close to that of their ideal as possible. Opportunities that were only to be had elsewhere in colleges.

Although I said earlier that I must not have been one of the better students (see my 12/7/17 post with the article on Punahou School) I must have been better than I remembered there.

When I look beyond the chaos, I can see that I did indeed thrive in so many ways.

I have several more stories to tell about the chaos but I now promise to myself here to continue to practice, remembering the joy. The joy to be…

To be continued…