Training Time

              Whatever takes experience, takes time. As we are well aware, some occupations demand much more time and skill than others, and as in the medical field, no matter how skilled the individual, time and experience is required. Some jobs can be accomplished with on the job training, but most require more time and mentoring and study.

             Training for life is a different story. We train in steps, very slowly, through many years, and other times there is an experience that is an instant training or knowing. The difficulty with the training that is required for life is that it is life-long. It doesn't stop at a certain age and at times the training or even experiencing seems to have come to a stop. This is true when there is a routine type job that seems not to vary much from one day to another. Still, we learn. We may say, "I'll never do that again" or "I've learned my lesson" but then we find that we make the same mistake again until we truly have learned the lesson.

              What are we training for? What is the experience that is necessary for life? It is as different for each individual as there are plants on the earth. We all have lessons to learn and they differ greatly. That is why communication is so often misunderstood. We think or feel that once we have learned something that it is obvious to another and that they have the same background 'knowing' as we do. It is also difficult when one is partner with another, and one is more knowing in one area of experience than the other. We try to balance by teaching or sharing or showing, but in most cases, the learning has to come from within the individual who is still mastering that particular lesson.

             We train in ways that are not evident. We hear, see, take in information many times where we are not aware, and yet at some particular point in time, the information is there to retrieve for use. We learn in ways so subtle that we're not aware we have changed until some repeating circumstance and our different reaction causes us to realize that things are not the same.

             As we train for the new world atmosphere, it is somewhat like reading a book in a foreign language. We may sense or find clues as to what the lesson is about, but as far as the understanding, it cannot be there. To carry the analogy further, we need a translator. The 'translator' may come in the form of a teacher, or perhaps in the written word, but the best source is the use of the silence. To listen is to learn. To listen is to be trained in control, will, and wisdom. The lessons cannot always be translated into words, but the effect of the lesson can be absorbed at a level that is not consciously known. The more time that is spent in this type of training, the better prepared an individual will be for the future.