The Beauty in Learning: JJL in Year Two

What will fade away to your irrelevance,
allowing the beauty to shine through?

One of my web-surfing diversions is Flickr’s Interestingness in the last 7 days (you continually refresh the page with a new set by hitting the reload button). Photography is one of those things in my Sad Sack category of would love to learn it, have said so forever, and still do nothing about it. Perhaps JJL’s year two will help fix that for me, especially with digital capture so very appealing now in my on-going quest to go as paperless as possible.

I loved this photo the moment I saw it, and have been waiting to share it with you. Though I could not have known it at the time, I think today is the day I was waiting for.

Photographer Lani Barbitta wrote as her caption, “beauty can be found in the most obscure places” and I agree (that is exactly what aloha teaches us).

I agree, and love how she celebrated the thought; great pictures do have a way of showcasing beauty when the photographer has focused in as precisely as Lani has. The clutter that surrounds the objet d’art fades away to irrelevance. Lani continues, “...for instance, I found this scene in 'condom' alley, the alley adjacent to my workplace!!”

So as we launch into Year 2 here at Joyful Jubilant Learning, what will be the beauty captured by your learning intentions, and what distracting clutter will it help fade into irrelevance for you?

Can we talk story for today about what you want to learn in JJL’s year two?

Don’t think about it as JJL’s, but as your October 2, 2007 through to October 1, 2008 … when that day arrives a year from now, what do you want to say emerged as the beauty of your learning, just like the brilliance of the flower in Lani’s photo?

Would you share your learning wants, wishes, and dreams with us?

You never know about the seed you may plant … one of our readers, or authors here may read your words, and think to themselves, “oh wow, me too! That is beauty I want!” and soon, the conversations of collaborative, joyful learning will be off and running. Yours is shared in Ours, and the joy of a learner’s work becomes the power of We.

Another jubilant year awaits us.
~ Rosa Say, for Joyful Jubilant Learning

Please join the conversation!

Let’s Talk Story ... in the Learner’s *Language of Intention; From this October to the next, what will be the beauty captured by your learning intentions? Or, asked another way, simply trusting that there will be beauty there, What do you want to learn more about? ...and if you would like to share it, What distracting clutter do you anticipate it will help fade into irrelevance for you?

For example, one topic we have started with, is Blog Action Day, learning how we too can learn to sustain the best-possible environment on our Earth:

I think it is timely and what I like about the way they've constructed the challenge is that it's an open question. They're not saying 'this is our view go off and write about', but 'let's talk together about the environment, the world that we live in'. I think there's a lot that we'll all be able to learn from that. I hope so anyway. ~ Joanna Young

Joanna, this is going to be amazing! Already, I am mulling over what I would write about... and am very curious to see what happens with this experiment. ~ Karen Wallace

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*Postscript:
The Language of Intention is one of the eight key concepts in Managing with Aloha --- Speak intentionally, and be true to your good word. Drive communication of the right messages, and you drive momentum and worthwhile energies. Learn to speak and work with the “Language of We.”

• From the JJL archives: Learn the power of we by Joanna Young
• As Steve Sherlock thoughtfully has taught us: Lessons of the Geese appears on the blog Synergy
• Most of us struggle with our goals because we are really terrible at dreaming up the good stuff. Start a Bigger Thinker’s List: “What I Want to Learn”

Comments

[Joanna Young]

Rosa, thanks for bringing us back down to earth with the reminder that we need to turn our attentions to the year ahead!

I'm not sure what my answer is to your question yet, but I couldn't let this piece go by without commenting on the photograph. It's stunning.

As I was scrolling down the page to reveal the flower - honestly the tears were in my eyes with the beauty it revealed.

I know this is part of my focus just now but it also made me think of my writing topic - clarity, getting clear, cutting away the irrelevance, allowing the message, the important stuff, the objet d'art, the beauty to shine through.

That's the purpose that drives our work, our craft, our art and all our efforts to hone it.

Thanks for sharing the image as the start to the second year's learning.

Joanna

[April Groves]

What a beautiful picture both in the flower and in the post. New beginnings are always so exciting.

I need to learn to narrow my focus while still remaining open to great possibilities. Hmmm...sounds easier said then done...that happens when you are just so excited and just want to learn, do, and experience so much.

[Phil Gerbyshak]

What IS next for me, in 2008? I'm expecting to learn how to focus better, and plan to do just what you suggested Rosa: to weed out the junk and lock into the goodness of life.

Thanks for the beautiful reminder this picture, and this post, provides. I'll report back in a year, and let you know how I did, though I suspect it'll be apparent for you, and for many.

Aloha dear friend!