Learning to be a better person. The whole process is deceptively simple in theory but in practice, it’s a wild ride.
One question just leads to the next, and the same goes for each lesson — one after the other, then in circles, and finally forward.
The most important ones seem to always come too late. We might think to ourselves: had I learned the lesson sooner, I wouldn’t have made the mistake.
However, the truth is much harder to swallow: had I not made the mistake, I couldn’t have learned the lesson in the first place. Such is the paradox of personal growth and recognizing one’s self.
In hindsight, these lessons arrived just in time. Our receptivity to them might just be as important as the lessons themselves, if not more.
There appear to be intentional cracks in nature’s clock that keep us from reliving the same noons and midnights. We leak through them, drop by drop, at our own pace.
It is only through the uncomfortable, unsettling, and often scary letting go of the story we’ve sold ourselves that we’re able to gain some necessary perspective.
To see things as they actually are, not just how we’d like them to be. This is the goal.
In most cases, Amor Fati is the only real solution. Love of fate, good or bad. It’s the first step, one after the other until eventually, we’re back where we started, only better.
The more I think about this, the more I understand that learning to be a better person is a process that grows as we go through it.
We pick up parts of a compass as we walk the path. This compass points to the general direction of where we’re supposed to go.
Trusting it is the big hump. Once we’re over that hump, everything else is a matter of living it and enjoying the view. Look out for more parts, more questions, lessons, consequences, and diverging paths. Drift good, walk good.