As far as focused learning, I've been catching up on my Spanish and German via Duolingo, which is very well designed and fun. I have no reason for wanting to continue, just that I didn't want to let something I have loved atrophy further, and I might be able to put my Spanish to good use eventually.
I've been reading a lot (though not so much in the last two weeks) and writing privately. My own diffused studies have been softly focused on consciousness, from a scientific viewpoint (
The Man Who Wasn't There-- a great read on disorders of Self which is particularly intriguing), from a mythological viewpoint like the classic Jungian work
The Great Mother by Erich Neumann, politically and sociologically (
Sacred Pleasure, and
Chalice and the Blade by Riane Eisler), as well as classic 20th century works (
Doors of Perception by Aldous Huxley,
The Book by Alan Watts). I've dabbled in Western philosophy, but I'm unsure where I really want to start.
The trails have led me to armchair explorations of Shamanism most recently, and it's an odd notion in my head that once at Evergreen I'd like one quarter's study to be visiting modern shamans in a northern community, either Canada, Alaska, or (exotic!) Siberia, etc. I'm even thinking about weaving in some mycology classes.
Not all this is superfluous (though, no judgment about that!) as it's my intention to take my interest in all this somewhere. Possibly academic, possibly clinical. This is going to be what I'll be searching for in school-- the right niche, the right calling. I already know I'd like to work (intern) with young, homeless women and girls, study disorders of self, and work (intern) in the growing field of psychedelics as a therapeutic tool.
I've been learning more specifically about cultural needs for vegetable gardens. I'm a gardener and have been for decades, but the neediness of crops annoys and confounds me and I think it's time to be a bit more forgiving of these plants and find out just what they need from me and when. A hoe is on my next-to-buy list. I'm hoping I have more energy for the garden this year, as last year my energy tanked.
Today or tomorrow I need to take an hour training on creating a paper trail for my GS cookie mom job. There is rarely an area that I am so untalented at than bookkeeping-type stuff. It's not that I dislike it. I actually don't mind it, but hours in I discover how fabulously I screwed up. Every. Time. I can learn it, I know, but I am so uncoordinated at it. So today (tomorrow) I march onward and see if I can learn some tricks to keep all this stuff to stay put in my head.
I would *love* to get back into Aikido! Unfortunately, it's so far down on my list of can-do-next that I'm afraid it will be a long, long while.