If I hadn't learned how to juggle, I wouldn't be the Christian I am today.

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How does one get into the business of learning how to juggle??

But practice of course!.....😅 Ok…. well, I guess that didn’t fully answer your question. So, where exactly does one start when first learning to do this? 🧐

Me? I started by asking questions, lots and lots of questions. I like my detailed answers. Back in my day, I wore out the library scanner, the librarian, and my card. (No, literally I did.) For you, I would probably hit up Google like a monkey all over a banana cream pie first, or drive another librarian bonkers, your call.

See, I need me some detailed details before I begin any task that requires key focus, practice, and patience. After I had exhausted all of my questions and probably made that poor librarian need to take a long siesta, I started searching for people with experience, then I was off again with more questions till I plucked them clean like last year's Thanksgiving Butterball turkey.

Let’s see what roughly did I do next? I went searching to find people to connect with on a more personal level, you know, those few and far between who really felt my passion and saw that special sparkly in me. I found three amazing friends, and right away, they could see the potential shimmering off my skin. These were the people I wanted to learn from; they carried themselves with everything I wanted to be like, and they see that sparkliness because they have it too!

But, then came the hardest part…re-learning my possibilities, training my mind and eyes, tons of practice, a lot of failures, then even more practice every day, and not to mention the patience involved and the trust involved with handling these big ole’ bowling pins getting tossed in the air heading straight for the bridge of my delicate nose or my one of a kind smile. 

Now, no giggling at me, because I do have a little delicate nose, and those things come down at about 1000 miles per hour when they are hurtling towards your face. Ok, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously, from my point of view, that's how fast they seem! 👀

The trusting was the hardest part, when they would tell me not to flinch, or be still, or place my body this way, put my hand here or my foot there, that’s the hardest part. I had to learn to trust that they knew what they were talking about and were trying to show me, most of that came from not listening and learning from my mistakes (usually the hard way). 

I also struggled with not get to cocky as I advance in skill sets and I really had to, no — ended up flat out realizing I needed to fully lean on their experience, knowledge, and expertise if I’m ever going to get any good at this

Honestly, I felt like a floundering tadpole out of water for the longest time, kind of of like I was drowning in a sea of all sorts of emotions, while they are calm, collected, and steadfast all the time. And yes, that was totally frustrating at times, and sometimes I even felt a bit embarrassed when I’d let my mind and emotions get the worst of me and I’d fly off on a tangent

The coolest part about this whole learning experience was that because I had (and still have) this passion that they clearly saw, was that no matter how many times that 300-ish lb bowling pin nailed me in the noggin, they kept cheering me on, passing along a wealth of tips, support, high fives and even brought other people in to help me as I eventually advanced in my skills.

Just think about it, if I had thrown in the towel in the beginning as I dived into learning this, all because I didn’t understand what the heck I was doing half the time or understood the terminology the other half of the time, I’d never be the Christian I am today.

© Jane Isley

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