Life Lessons

Yesterday, I reread all of my posts so far. Most life lessons are like sunscreen; you have to reapply often.

Unfortunately, not only do I have to remind myself, I generally have to learn them first hand and not take someone else's word for it. Furthermore, it may take several "opportunities" before the lesson becomes clear.

Lessons don't sink into us until we are ready for them. For instance, we may know that to repeat the same thing over and over again and expect a different result is insanity, but we will continue to do so despite negative results until we are REALLY ready to stop; meanwhile the Universe will keep giving us such opportunities until whatever we need to gain is clear and heartily absorbed. Sacred texts can be quite repetitive, I believe, intentionally for this same reason.

Tom Clancy (and a Native American before him) said that "once you stop learning, you die."  It's certainly true that when you become complacent, life throws curve balls to keep us on our toes. This experience would be pretty boring otherwise.

This is why we "practice" yoga, law, and medicine. When we revisit an asana, a situation, or a parable, we embrace it differently every time and stretch ourselves slightly more.

We just have to have faith that we learn what we need to now and uncover the rest at the right time and that all of our life experiences and lessons are there as a tool belt inside of us even if they are not apparent. Be thankful for your teachers and messengers – the pleasant and the harsh, and be proud when you see your responses subtly shift and when you recognize the same patterns (bonus points when you start to recognize them at the beginning.) It's tempting to beat yourself up when we realize we knew better, but, after all, Jesus did instruct us to have the mind and eyes of children...

Best wishes in this classroom called Earth,

Crystal