Times Flies Anyway

Ourselves, Charlotte Mason Volume 4 ( Part II The House Of Mind); Chapter 3 The Daemons Of The Intellect

"Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute;
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;
Begin it, and the work will be completed."
-MARLOWE'S Faust.

The firestarter initiates and the intellect responds. But without that spark, it’s easy to fall into a routine of learning nothing new, doing only what’s required, and rarely stepping beyond what’s familiar. The questions stop coming, the curiosity stops showing up, and the days start to blur; each one quietly imitating the last.

The spark isn’t always dramatic. It shows up in our choice to read a different genre, a curiosity or an urge to go down a rabbit hole. Our choices greatly determine what our intellect is capable of. The small improvements we make every day compound greatly over time. The time is going to pass anyway. We are going to get older, and our children will get older. What can we do differently today?

For most of us, we already have our inclinations, friendships, and occupations. It’s easy to stay in the boxes we’ve created for ourselves. I’ve often heard people say, “I’m not a Maths person” or “I don’t read fiction.” What they really mean is, “I haven’t chosen Maths yet” or “I haven’t chosen fiction yet.” We’ve unconsciously built walls we refuse to look over. We’ve pre-decided what our intellect is capable of handling, and unfortunately, we’ve made those decisions for our children too. We’ve mistakenly believed that life is about one thing — one interest, one career, one talent, one possibility, one intelligence. But if we make the effort for ourselves and our children to learn all we can from the ideas we encounter, we’ll begin to synthesise them in ways that are unique to us. As a bonus, we create new possibilities for connecting with others, and who knows what lifelong friendships may grow from that.

Time flies anyway.

Best Regards,

Olufunmike