Never say never.
That is something I’ve learnt as I’ve grown older. Things are so black and white when you’re a youngster, and as you see more of the world and experience life and injustice and unfairness, you realise that very few things remain so clear.
As a teenager, I once said to friends and family that I would never marry a man with a bald head. OK, so I didn’t marry him when he had a bald head, but now that it’s going bald, of course it doesn’t matter. In fact, I now find bald heads interesting! And short hair cuts on balding guys are just lovely to run your hands over (with permission first, of course!!) LOL!
So many things I declaimed as a teenager and twenty something are things I now find myself doing or appreciating and sometimes in discussions with younger folk, I find myself asking them to keep their minds open about things, and not shut things out because they don’t fit at the moment.
Were you the same as a teenager? What did you say you’d never do that you now do?
At one time, I even said I would never teach weaving – probably when I was having a bad day with a class full of kids!! I’m so glad I didn’t stick to that! I have such fun with my students – they are amazing interesting people who have life experiences and knowledge that enriches my understanding of life.
Also, as is usual with teaching, you learn by teaching, so I find new ways of explaining techniques and drafting methods, new ways of doing things that helps a student understand, new ways of thinking that help to transfer information. And by doing that, I get new ways of looking and thinking about things that translate into my own weaving – sudden insights that help me to develop another way of looking at a problem or devising a combination of techniques to get the result that I want.
Life continually throws us new challenges and by being prepared to change and adapt our ways of thinking, maybe even doing things we previously said we’d never do, then we thrive and grow! My only caveat to that is that I hope I never find myself contemplating doing something that violates my most deeply held convictions! But it’s something my son is going to have to come to terms with as he joins the forces and so it’s something that’s been on our minds recently. At what point do you draw the line, or stand up and be counted?
‘Never say never’ can also help us overcome our own personal fears and phobias – like taking a job to teach music to classes of kids, which was a huge fear of mine – or facing a fear of flying or spiders.
As usual with most things, ‘never say never’ can have positive impacts, but also negative ones. It’s what we are made of that counts, and for me ‘never say never’ is a positive approach to life.
So