Thankfulness

From the Fall Blog Challenge by Melanie Holtsman, this week’s topic is thankfulness.

Challenge: During this time of the year everyone is taking time to be thankful. What is one thing you are thankful for and why?

I thought about this topic for awhile and wanted to write something interesting but something that I was truly thankful for. Over the years I have written the usual stuff because I am so thankful for my husband, my family, and my health. I thought this time that I focus on being thankful for something different (even though I am still truly thankful for the things I mentioned).

I am thankful for my curious nature. Of course this leads me to learning new things. Sometimes I am cautious to start something new but eventually my curiosity gets the better of me and gives me courage to take that first step. I tend to think about what is the worst thing that could happen to me if I try and usually the consequences are minimal.

During this year I learned how to:

1. Make collards and black eyed peas from scratch (Heard how homemade was better than canned)

2. Make a triangular lace shawl (I saw someone else do it and wanted to try)

3. Join and help in a community garden (My friend was involved and kept talking about it on facebook)

4. Make chocolate zucchini bread (Bought a huge zucchini at the farmer’s market and the lady gave me the recipe)

5. Spin my own yarn (I watched a friend do this in my knitting group and thought it looked fun)

6. Be a Master Naturalist (met a friend while we were hiking who told us about the program and how interesting it was)

I’m thankful that I’m curious or I never would have tried any of these things. I look forward to new adventures that curiosity will take me on in the future.

I believe we encourage students to be careful so much that we make them scared to try. When my children were growing up, I would tell them, “No.” “Don’t do that. You might get hurt.” “Be careful. You don’t know what might happen.” What if I stifled their curiosity and kept them from learning? I notice that as I get older, I give in to my curiosity more often. I wonder if it is because I have more experience in life and realize that being curious is okay, as long as I don’t put myself in dangerous positions. Maybe that is part of growing up. Maybe that is the real message that I need to share with my students.

What is one thing that you are thankful for?

Posted on the Successful Teaching Blog by loonyhiker (successfulteaching at gmail dot com).

Original image: 'curious roy'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/51035611977@N01/17200747 by: Stefano Mortellaro