Wonder or Wander

Teresa wrote whether the informal learning that I took based on my initiative has been a structured experience. By and large, I question myself whether informal learning in her meaning has been just additional to my formal learning if formal learning meant only learning from the classes that I registered for. Last semester I took only two classes and even one of those was Pro-seminar, which is not directly related to my study. The other class was of a seminar type, not a lecture. In the end, I wrote a final paper, which was supposed to be an application of the methodologies we had talked about in class. Using some of the learned methodologies, I was expected to conduct research on a topic. It was rather exciting in a sense, feeling like a scholar on my own way, and was a synergistic combination between formal and informal learning. But, did it become my structured experience?

Hesse. (1920; 1972 in English). James Wright (Trans). NY: Farrar Straus & Giroux This book I wish to possess, saturated with lovely loneliness and simple yet sharp meditation, is composed of Hesse's watercolor paintings, proses and poems. (On the left, Gogh's oil painting, The Old Tower in the Field ) He appreciates the joy of life allotted to him. The dream of death is only the dark smoke Under which the fires of life are burning. He looks for motherhood as he seeks God. Heart, how torn you are, How blessed to plow down blindly, To think nothing, to know nothing, Only to breathe, only to feel. He learns from trees, Be still! Look at me! Life is not easy, life it not difficult. Those are childish thoughts. Let God Speak within you, and your thoughts will grow silent. You are anxious because your path leads away from mother and home. But every step and every day lead you back again to the mother. Home is neither here nor there. Home is within you, or home is nowhere at all.