Challenge(s)

December 9 Challenge. Something that really made you grow this year. That made you go to your edge and then some. What made it the best challenge of the year for you?

Something challenging...
Ignoring idiocy when I really wanted to address idiocy. That was a challenge. And several people wrote and said "You should address idiocy," and I was sorely tempted. Then a couple of others advised gently, "Ignore idiocy."

Was that "growth"? It was arresting the urges of immaturity, I suppose. It was overcoming my instinctive tendency to respond.

But that was a small part of a big year.

It was a challenge to carry on at the Good Vibrations Unschooling Conference even though sometimes I couldn't stand up and sometimes couldn't walk without being helped. I was afraid it was something really dangerous. I thought perhaps I had a blood clot or maybe two, and so I went to the emergency room after I was through speaking, helping with the talent show, and doing a workshop. And they did say I was unlikely to die anytime soon, and there wasn't a blood clot. Still I was in serious pain for several weeks. And gradually I got better and it was the past, history, a story, I survived.

I have a #3 challenge from last year and that was deciding what to put in The Big Book of Unschooling and what to leave out, because the webpage has over 700 pages, but I didn't want a 700 page book. Survived that one too!

I think at my age I'm on the downhill, growth-speaking, and so questions about edgy personal growth are a bit like those MySpace questionnaires that talk about whether someone has ever been kissed or had her own room. Still, the year and the decade are ending for old folks as well as the young, and so I will contribute my little stories too.