Where will life take me from here?

Sitting down to blog this afternoon, a couple of stories caught my eye, one discussing universities. This posed the question: what is a university fundamentally about? The answer? 'It is a place of learning where students and teachers should be part of a learning community not just providers and customers.'

I am often asked how I teach the subjects I don't know anything about or how I will continue to teach post-16 qualifications. My answer is that I am seeking to raise confident learners who believe that, if there are skills and knowledge out there to be had, then they can learn them too. Although I finished full-time education a long time ago, I have not stopped learning. When I have needed to, I have sought out experts, paid for tuition, asked friends, tried things out, read books, taken courses and muddled my way through and my children are following me along this path. I aspire to create a Home Ed experience that is just such a place of learning where the children and I are part of a learning community together.

My imagination was tickled by the man selling his entire life. I wonder what someone would bid for my life? Suburban, stay-at-home mother, three children, husband with a secure job: would people be clamouring to bid or would it be seen as dull and lifeless? I have pondered this a little and I guess no bidder would be able to buy all that make my life valuable, special and colourful. The love in my life, the love of my children, my husband, my wider family, my friends, my church community would not be for sale. The curiousity, the seeking something different, the new experiences I look out for and the goals I set myself to reach, the inner me that animates my life, this also I couldn't sell.

But if I did, what would I do? This man intends to walk out of his front door with his wallet and passport and catch the first flight from the nearest airport to see where life takes him. What an adventure! I am envious. I do not envy the broken marriage or the rootlessness that enables him to do this but I am impressed at his appetite for life and I cannot deny the part of my soul that would love to do likewise. What roots me here is the love, relationships and community but I love the sense of seeing where life will take me. While there is no jumbo jet on the runway to change my life, I do have the choice to have adventure. In one way, this blog is an adventure, climbing Crib Gogh another and I have had many others and I hope to have many more, always asking, 'where will life take me from here?'