Quiet No More

Rediscovering Childhood Wonder: The Power of Creativity and Nature's Tranquility

• Carmen Cauthen

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What if the spark of childhood wonder could transform your daily life?
 
Join me, Carmen Cauthen, as I share the heartwarming tale of my daughter's 80-year-old babysitter, who proves that creativity knows no age by inventing new words each day. This episode of "Quiet, No More" invites you on a journey through personal anecdotes and reflections on how continuous learning—whether through the pages of a novel or a simple change in routine—can invigorate our minds and enrich our lives. You’ll hear about how my socially and environmentally conscious friends have opened my eyes to the simple beauty around us, like the unforgettable moment I encountered a stately blue heron at Walnut Creek. Such experiences rekindle the simple joys of being a child, immersed in nature and exploration.

Together, let's rediscover those long-forgotten activities that once filled our hearts with joy. Whether it's exploring creeks or finding inspiration among trees, these simple pleasures can break the monotony and nurture our spirits. I encourage you to revisit past interests or embark on new adventures—like exploring different genres of music, picking up a new book, or taking a mindful walk in nature. Embrace creativity and curiosity as guides to a more fulfilling life. 

This episode is a celebration of the fulfillment that comes from seeking knowledge and embracing new experiences amidst the tranquility of nature and the simplicity of childhood joys.

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Carmen Wimberley Cauthen is an author, speaker, and lover of history, Black history in particular. As a truth teller, she delights in finding the hidden truths about the lives of people who made a difference - whether they were unknown icons or regular everyday people.

To Learn more of Carmen:
www.carmencauthen.com
www.researchandresource.com

Speaker 1:

Unseen, unheard. We've lived like that far too long. I'm Carmen Coffin and this is Quiet, no More. Hi, I just wanted to talk to you about another pet peeve I have. It's that I think it's important to learn something new every day. I do. I'm not saying it has to be something big, it just has to be something new. That's how one of the ways you exercise your brain is to put something new in it every day. We don't use but about 15 or 20 percent capacity of our brain, so it's not like you're gonna fill it up. Well, what I think? If you don't want to learn something new every day, I think you're pretty lazy.

Speaker 1:

I learn new stuff in different ways. Sometimes I learn by reading, and I don't mean reading major, huge stuff. I mean I might pick up a Black Ops novel and learn something new, because I just like political and kind of CIA kind of stuff, novels. I also like romances. You can learn new stuff in romances. You can learn about a new town or city or a new language in the process of reading that. You can learn something new just going to the grocery store, getting out of your normal space and your normal routine. But when you stop learning, why are you still here? I mean, what's the purpose if everything is going to be the same forever?

Speaker 1:

I remember one of my daughter's babysitters. I went to visit her one day and she was 80 something when she was babysitting my girls and she would take one word every day and see how many more words she could make out of it, because she did not want her mind to stop working. Now, she didn't have to have a book, she didn't have to have a word search, word find, crossword, puzzle, any of that kind of stuff. She would just come, take a word every day and then start breaking it down and she would stop and go, do other things and come back to that word all day long. Her mind was always working and she was a treasure and she made sure that my youngest daughter was ready for school when she got there. Now, she didn't necessarily teach her to read because she was older and so that wasn't one of the things she was doing, but she made sure she knew her ABCs, her colors, how to write her name, and she didn't have workbooks. She didn't have any of that stuff. She used to teach my daughter little wooden blocks that looked like they were older than me that had the alphabet on them. But she learned from that to break a word down every day. So she was learning something new every day. She learned when she finally got a computer how to play solitaire on the computer.

Speaker 1:

I have to have something new in my head every day. It could be from reading, like I said, it could be from driving somewhere. Just driving around the city of Raleigh. I learn something new every day because if I go a different way every two or three weeks, there's some new, something built, there's some streets that are changing.

Speaker 1:

I am amazed at the things that I can learn just by being out and around other people. I've started hanging out with people who are into the environment and you know, the environment was always outdoors to me and so outdoors was not one of my favorite things, was always outdoors to me, and so outdoors was not one of my favorite things. And on top of that my children were allergic to grass and trees and stuff like that, so we didn't spend a lot of time outdoors. But the other day I was driving to Sam's and the Sam's is by Walnut Creek, which is a big creek that flows to the river that floods and it floods the Black community quite a bit, but when I was driving past the chain link fence on the side of Sam's that separates the Sam's driveway from the creek, I saw something blue outside standing in the water and I pulled over and I took my phone and I expanded it so I could take a picture through the chain link fence. I was amazed. I'd never seen a blue heron in my community, but evidently they like Walnut Creek and so there was one standing there and it was beautiful and the color was gorgeous, and I never would have thought to even look for it if I had not begun to spend time with people who were environmentally aware and who showed me that that creek is something special. And so I've been learning about people who spent time in the creek, and it's brought memories back to me of time that I spent growing up.

Speaker 1:

There are two creeks that border the city of Raleigh. Crabtree Creek is on the north side, walnut Creek is on the south, and I remember when I was growing up and I was an only girl in the neighborhood and one of the things that I would do to be by myself and to be outside was to go down to the creek. I used to go down to Crabtree Creek and I would take my shoes off and my socks and I would walk along the creek bed. I didn't see a blue heron, but I did see all kinds of other critters that were down there, and I had forgotten, until I saw that blue heron, that I enjoyed doing that when I was growing up. It's amazing, as we grow older, how we stop doing some of the things that we did when we were children. As the neighborhood around me grew, I didn't feel comfortable going down behind people's houses to go to the creek, and so I stopped doing that.

Speaker 1:

But now I can see that I actually valued the environment that was around me, and so I would suggest to you that you think about things that you used to do that you may not do anymore and wonder why it is you don't do that it's not just that we're frustrated or we're busy with life, but sometimes it's that we forgot we liked those things and, like I said, I forgot. I used to like to go to the creek. It was quiet, and even though I might hear a little bit of the roar of the cars driving on the highway, it wasn't very loud because there weren't very many cars and there wasn't that much highway at that point, but there was peace and solitude and frogs and tadpoles and fish in the water and tadpoles and fish in the water. But you know, I went another 50 years and didn't do that.

Speaker 1:

So it's only been in the last two or three years that I've actually started to look at outdoors differently, and I've remembered, too, that one of the other things that I love to learn about was trees. I love being around a tree. I used to climb them when I was growing up, and that's another thing that I've had to revisit. Not climbing, because I'm not, you know, I'm 65. I'm not trying to climb up a tree, I'm not trying to fall, I'm not trying to do any of those things, but just the beauty of being around a tree and how it makes me feel and how it makes me want to be creative and to grow, and it gives me inspiration to go learn something new.

Speaker 1:

And so that's what I was talking about this whole while it's important to learn new stuff every day, and sometimes I am encouraged to learn something new by somebody who's with me it might be one of my girls, by somebody who's with me it might be one of my girls, it might be a young person that I'm around doing something else, it might be a small child, it might even be a dog.

Speaker 1:

I've had to learn how to spend time with dogs just coming to this studio to record, because there's a dog in the studio with me and he's being very quiet and very nice and that's a good thing. So whatever it is that you used to do when you were a kid that you've gotten away from doing now that you're an adult, that you've gotten away from doing now that you're an adult, think about doing it again and if there's nothing you can think about, that you used to do that you want to do again. Find something new to do, whether that's going to the library to check out a book or going on a walk or listening to a different radio station or a different style of music. I bet you can do it, because you know we can't be quiet all the time, and I'm not being quiet anymore. You've been listening to Quiet no, no more, where I share my journey.