“Seeing Stars”

I grew up in a home that encouraged learning. We were expected to do our best when it came to school but let me really translate that for you – we were expected to get good grades. My mom had the Book Mobile stop at our house once a week during the summer to encourage reading. For those of you that have never seen such a thing, it was a huge delivery truck with shelves on the inside filled with books from the library that you could check out. It was like Uber Eats, but for avid readers. It was also assumed that when we graduated High School, we would go to college. If we didn’t go to college, we had to get a job and pay rent to sleep in our childhood bedroom or we could join the military. My brother chose the military. I went to college. However, I was the kid that loved learning and reading and school. I would still be in school today if I could figure out what I wanted to learn next, but I have already earned the highest degree in my field so having more than one Doctorate seems like overkill.

I guess that is why this quote from poet Jack Gilbert grabbed my attention the other day. He has a line in one of his poems that says, “sometimes you have to unlearn the constellations in order to see the stars”. I have spent so many years learning so many different things – from how to tie my shoes, to driving a car, to how to prepare and present a sermon, that I have never stopped to think about unlearning anything. But maybe I should. Perhaps it is time to unlearn some bad habits, or some bad words, or even some bad memories.

What would you like to unlearn? What past hurts do you need to unlearn to be present in a current relationship? What obstacles are blocking your progress? What is robbing you of your joy? What storms are clouding your view of a possible opportunity? Perhaps we can all unlearn what is holding us back so we can see the stars.

On the Journey,
Ramonalynn Bethley

Ramonalynn Bethley is the pastor at First United Methodist Church of Alexandria. If you would like to contact Ramonalynn, you can email her at DrRevRL@fumca.org