Thinking/Doing
“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.” — Richard Rohr
It’s always doing that changes our thinking. Becoming actively involved in a community/job/activity creates new experiences, which alter our perception. Travel does this, too, as does spending time with people whose lives are different from ours. We can also use this in isolation: if I want to think like someone who exercises, I should probably exercise a bit.
We can watch and read “about” something forever, convinced we know and understand a thing. But doing, living, experiencing it is something else altogether.
There are a million examples of this across all of our lives. I, for example, had a lot of thoughts about parenting. But then I had children. Living with my children for the last 18 years has created plenty of new ways of thinking.
The same with teaching. I had defined ways of thinking about what it was like and what could be accomplished in a public school classroom. These weren’t flippant thoughts — they were based on my own experience in school, graduate education in teaching, and solid research. Then I taught in a public school classroom . . . new ways of thinking is an understatement.
You get the idea. The important thing is to remember that this is true.
Two things I take from this quote:
If I want to think differently, I have to live differently.
If I think I know/understand something, but haven’t lived it, I need to hold those thoughts a lot more loosely.
xo,
Beth