Muse

Sometimes changing the question can prompt an answer to a conundrum. When my hearing test showed a decline I wondered if it meant that I should start learning ASL. Of course, there really is no answer to that question. Today I asked myself a different question: Why not learn ASL? I don't think I'm very good at languages, and I don't think I have a good memory, but perhaps ASL will draw on those hidden visual and kinesthetic abilities. I will be able to understand my sister when she signs to me across a noisy room. Learning a new language will be good for my brain - like learning ballroom dancing or watercolor painting.

At a landscape watercolor painting workshop last weekend I met a woman in her 80's who said that she wanted to take every class she could. She was intrepid, walking over the sand to sit and paint Proposal Rock, and walking down to paint the Salmon River estuary. When I sign up for an ASL class this fall, I'm going to invoke her spirit and let her be my muse.