What a shame! Do you remember the first time you managed to tie a shoe all by yourself? Or when you looked at the clockface and realised that you understood it? Suddenly the numbers and the hands made sense, and you knew exactly what the time was! I certainly remember how desperately I wanted to learn to read, and just how excited I was, sitting at my very own desk in Prep, seeing all those letters on the board and for the first time being given names for them. Aa Bb Cc... So many letters, so much to learn! But before I knew it, I could spell the word "cat"! C A T, cat. And so many more words followed.
This year I want to be excited about learning again. I don't want to scull it like a pint of beer, drinking it all down in one great gulp I hardly have time to taste and then feel overloaded afterwards. Instead I want to savour each sip as it comes to me, like watching the miracle of a single candle flame. What a joy to childishly record each new piece of information and know that today there is something I know that I never knew before. And there's something I can now do that I could never do before.
It is the most exciting thing in the world, to know ourselves still growing, still capable of change. If we choose, we can delight in every single new thing that never was before.