There have now been 66 years of taking in food and water, passing out pee and poop, and being involved with education (in six countries). Main features of my life have included:
- Infancy, childhood and adolescence in small towns in the NE of Scotland
- 14 years of schooling, four years of University (Zoology), one year of Teacher Training
- Teaching – two years in Edinburgh, two years in Jamaica, three years in Zambia
- University – masters degree (Agricultural Extension)
- Retreat, and supply teaching
- Teaching – four years in South Sudan (+ education advisory work)
- University – masters degree (Education)
- Retreat, and supply teaching
- Education Advisor – four and a half years in Belize
- Retreat
- Education Advisor – three years in Lesotho
- Retreat
- Freelance consultant – short contracts in Tanzania, Scotland, and for the ILO in Geneva
- Retreat and private study – five years and ongoing (With Parkinson's Disease)
During all of that the action/reflection cycle has been constantly spiralling upwards. Several times I lived and worked in a foreign country then took time out to consider how my life is spent. Teacher teach yourself. Keep the ends open. Expand the horizons.
My parents had parents who had parents and so on back through primates, mammals, reptiles and fish to the big bang 13.7 billion years ago. I can trace my roots back to my great-grandparents 150 years ago. I never married and have no children. A tiny blip of stupendous inconsequence.
There once was only mindless matter but consciousness evolved and is now, with humans, aware of itself – at least in theory. The emerging insights of Neurology and Evolutionary Psychology have yet to make it big in popular culture. These days I help the process along when I read, think, feel and blog. Lifelong learning.
66 and going strong - a mindful life.
A blip giving it lip.
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