John Dewey was a beautiful resource for American education. The theme he went by was: “Learn by doing.”

Frankly, that seems to be the only way I learn. And by being shown, one on one, and by showing others. I have to be right in the middle of it in order to learn.

When it comes to computer skills, if someone can sit next to me and show me, and I can try it myself right then and there, I have a much better chance of an Aha moment than I do with even the best written instructions.

I also experience something else, another dimension of learning by doing. I start writing something, and that’s when I find out about what I have to say. I have to start it. I really learn by doing. If I weren’t writing this down, I wouldn’t know what I want to say, or even know that I have something to say.

I also experience something else along those lines. For instance, I may have the idea to write an email to someone, and, as I write it, sometimes I get the strong feeling that this isn’t an email for me to write. It can be a very nice email, and yet it’s like I’m stopped in the middle. I find out as I go along. I take these feelings seriously.

Does anyone else experience this? It is not reasoning, you understand. There may be no reason I can think of not to write a particular email, and yet, once that sense of Nope arrives, I stop. There is an internal urging too strong to resist.

I can also personally desire to write something later, and I find I must do it right now. This happens a lot when someone asks a personal question to God. I may plan to take down God’s response tomorrow morning, but then I will feel that strong impulse that I must do it this minute whether I want to or not. I have to do it, you understand, or I would not be at peace.

About this sense of Yes, go forward, or No, this isn’t for you, I would never know about it beforehand. Once started, however, I know when it’s a no go. I have no way of knowing until I get there.

I don’t even try to figure out why any more.