Give Thanks For Teaching Skills?

I’m thankful today for a friend who wanted to share. My thanks comes from the skills I learned from him that I now get to use to give to others. What am I thankful for? Bread.

I’ve shared thoughts on this before, but today, I am making bread. I am making sure I remember what he taught. This is not an easy process to make good tartine bread. It will take practice, and perhaps some more tools to really do it well. Stretching myself to do something I have only done once in class is fun and challenging. Luckily I have a great resource in the book Tartine Bread. It reminds me of what I learned.

Who Have You Forgotten?

I think that all too often we forget those that set us on a path that we really enjoy in life. I cannot say that my Home Economics teacher gave me a love of baking. Thankfully, she taught me a lot of valuable skills, but the pizza I made from scratch was not a success. Just returning from the dentist and numbed up, as was my brain, I blew the assignment.

The guys in my group expected me to do the hard work, so we ended up with really runny dough from double the water required. My teacher was kind as she gave us a really poor grade on the pizza. It still makes me laugh, and I learned a valuable lesson that day. I have a lot of gratitude for her patience.

As you may have recognized from my other posts, I enjoy working with wood. I learned to love it from my grandfather. However, I also remember Don Sandburg, my woodshop teacher of many years. He taught me to be exact and to measure twice. He, gratefully, instructed me on respecting the tools.

Are you forgetting a relative or friend who gave you valuable advice?

Show Gratitude For What You Received

When you show gratitude, you put a stamp of joy on that knowledge. It brings love for the topic to you, and it will inspire you to share it. Too often we think that sharing is giving everything away, but I have learned that sharing is a way to receive more. It is an essential principle of success. It does not mean you must give everything away, but share it. Asking others to pay for what you share is smart in many ways.

Companies and schools are great at sharing and receiving. Many of us should remember that we paid for college. It wasn’t free, but I hope you are grateful for what you gained there. On the job training is also a way of paying for knowledge gained. You don’t get paid as much until you learn the skills. Honor the process and help others to learn it as well.

Now, for some delicious bread. Mmmmm. Thanks Gove!