Be the Expert

At times like this, we are all looking to the experts for advice. We need facts and we need them now. It’s easy to spend an hour on the internet reading advice and news and predictions. Step away from the screen and Be the Expert. What do you know? Can you knit? Bake a cake? Make toast? Do you know everything about the Titanic? Can you identify the birds in your back yard? What do you know? Where do you feel like an expert?

How are you an expert? How does it make you feel? How can you appreciate the expertness of others? Learning to listen and ask questions is one of the steps to becoming an expert. Often, it’s our willingness to find out more about what we DON’T know that leads to our deeper and broader knowledge.

THINK – What does being an expert mean to you?

TALK – Become an expert on someone else. Interview a friend, neighbor or family member. You might ask about where they were born or what they like to eat. Find out about their favorite book. Ask them to relate a really good memory. Or tell you about a time when they felt brave.

WRITE – Answer the following: Who am I? Where am I from? What do I do? What do I know? Why do I know this? (Remember you are the expert. For instance, it’s up to you to define your terms. You might, in fact, be from Pittsburgh, but you are also from your mother’s body or from the planet earth.)

DO – Be the expert. Teach a family member or friend to dance or cook or draw a ladybug. Think about something you know and share it!

BE – Our chairs are expert at holding our bodies. Take a seat. Plant your feet on the floor (it’s very good at holding your weight.) Close your eyes. Take three long, deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth.

We love the poet Faith Shearin. Read her poem, “Sight” here. In describing the birth of a child, she maps the familiar territory of the woods, the hospital and her home, mixing the known with the unknown experience of a new baby.