I love to learn new things.  Everyone has their own way of learning and I’ve never really settled on one particular way.  Some things you have to learn by doing.  Some things you can learn from a book, others with a teacher.  Some things have to be seen.

The one thing I have learned regardless of the method is that learning is a spiral.  Or a snail shell.  This is likely when you wonder if I’ve lost it, but stick with me for a second.

Imagine you are a tenth of a mile away from a tree.  It’s a really big tree, so being a tenth of a mile away allows you to see the whole tree, top to bottom.  You may look at the tree and have questions that you can’t answer from that distance, but it’s okay.  You still know that it is a tree.

Now walk in a circle around the tree, only as you walk, you get slightly closer to the tree.  Now you get back to the same side of the tree that you started on, but you’re much closer, say you’re a few yards away.  Now what do you see?  It’s the same tree, the same side, but now you can notice more of the details.  You can see a bird’s nest.  You can see some of the detail of the bark.

Circle around the tree again, and end up on the same side, but now you’re right in front of the tree.  You know even more now, right?  You can see markings in the bark, what the leaves look like up close.  Only now you can’t see the top of the tree anymore.  You can’t see the whole tree.

But it’s okay, because you’ve seen the whole tree.  You saw it from the same angle, but further away. You can compare that knowledge with what you are seeing now, up close.  You can keep looking at the same angle over and over, but it looks different with each circle you walk as you get closer.

My point being that it doesn’t matter if you start up close or far away, just realize as you are learning, it is okay not to know everything.  You will circle back to the same angle, but with new knowledge.

PS This can be applied to life, too!