What does delightful learning look like for you? Do you have a contemplative habit? A regular practice of spending time thinking, going deep, and delving into soul-nurturing and beautiful activities?

“The most important thing every teacher should understand is that teaching is the art of being imitated,” Andrew Kern wrote in Forging a Likeness, “If you want a student to perceive a truth, you have to embody it. That’s what teaching is. When you teach, whether you intend to or not, you are saying to your students, ‘imitate me’.

Make yourself worthy of imitation.”

If we would like our children to practice deep thinking, contemplate big ideas, and relish truth and beauty as they go about their learning, perhaps we should make that a habit ourselves.

This is counter cultural (as are so many worthwhile pursuits, don’t you think?).

We moderns are obsessed with productivity- it goes against the grain to stop checking things off a list long enough to really go deep, enjoy, and steep ourselves in a new idea or skill.

Making time for delight in our own lives is not about adding to the to-do list, but rather about kindling the flame and igniting enthusiasm.

There are a million ways to encounter the truth, goodness, and beauty in the world every day.

For some it may look like learning to watercolor, for others reading through a tome of T.S. Eliot.

You might learn to learn how to dip candles, identify the trees in your neighborhood, write blog posts, or take care of an aquarium tank full of fish.

This won’t look the same for all of us, but the one common thread is that to imitate delight in our lives is to mindfully engage in truth, goodness, and beauty as a regular part of life.