Learning something new . . .

When I joined the Dunwoody Nature Center staff, I quickly discovered that the biggest part of my job is "and other duties as assigned." Thank goodness. No two days are the same, and there's always something new to figure out and take care of.

There's a paradox to all the "new" things I'm learning at work. Some are most definitely new - website management, blogging, print design, DreamWeaver, et al. They're quite a contrast to leisurely explorations at home, old-school skills of earlier generations: knitting, vegetable gardening, preserving, and sewing.

I like to try new things, and hope to never stop. But new-world skills seem to come with pressure and worries about deadlines and budgets and quality control and objectives and goals and meetings. Old-world skills are peaceful and meditative.

I embrace technology, but work hard to keep it at arm's length. I'm happiest cooking a meal from scratch, knitting in my workroom, checking on the progress of the cucumbers and cantelopes in the garden, and . . .

I guess I really like to learn something old.