Life is a journey, isn’t it?
We start out small. And grow. In many different ways.
Our lives become filled with experiences and opportunities for all sorts of personal growth and learning.
Everyone turns out differently, too. My life lessons may not be yours, and vice versa. They are based on our individual comings and goings.
So, then. What are the things we learn?
What things are we meant to learn?
Well. One thing is certain. And that is “change.” We cannot escape the fact that our world is constantly in motion. Internally and externally. And with this, sometimes we learn resilience. Life often presents challenges and setbacks. Some people are better at this than others. Oh, that resilience. It is our “learning” to bounce back from adversity and to adapt to change. Finding ways to persevere through tough times is a crucial lesson. Most of us don’t like learning this one.
Alexandre Dumas once said: “All human wisdom is summed up in two words: wait and hope.”
It reminds me of a scene from Cider House Rules, where one character tells the other that they are going to have to “Wait and see.”
We do a lot of that, really, Waiting. And then seeing.
Some people don’t blink an eye when it comes to the future. They seem to go with the flow, no matter what.
I’m not so good about that. I’m a worrier. I worry about the things around the bend, but mostly only when it involves some upcoming “event” that is out of the ordinary. I try to predict how it will go or prepare for what it might be like. It would be better to just relax and accept it as it comes. Because no matter what, the future is just a moment away.
Each moment. Keep breathing.
We are meant to learn, I think.
To be full of kindness. Kindness to other humans, kindness to all creatures, kindness to our world.
I believe we are meant to learn things like empathy. Forgiveness. Gratitude. Patience. Acceptance. Generosity. Integrity.
Love.
I think, ultimately, we strive for self-awareness. Understanding ourselves. Seeing our strengths and weaknesses. Developing our values. Experiencing our emotions honestly.
And if we are lucky, discovering our purpose. The meaning for us.
We start so small.
Yet. We have the ability to grow so large.
And making that journey, one moment at a time is just what we do.
As we wait.
And then we see.
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“For me, I am driven by two main philosophies: know more today about the world than I knew yesterday and lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.”
― Neil deGrasse Tyson
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“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.”
― Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics
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“That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you’ve understood all your life, but in a new way.”
― Doris Lessing
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As there is waiting. And hoping.
