Life Lesson Learned

I’ve often said that what it means to ‘grow up’ is reconciling the life you have with the life you thought you’d have……...

Everyone comes into our lives for a reason. Some people are meant to be with you for a long time and others for just a short period of time.  Every one of them has something to teach us.  Some people enter our lives for the purpose of teaching us painful lessons.  Some do this through kindness, love, or acceptance.  Others will do it through pettiness, meanness, betrayal, or deceit.  Either way, the lessons need to be learned.   

Those people who came into your life for a brief time and brought pettiness, meanness, betrayal, indifference, hurt, or dishonesty have their own lessons to learn, yes, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be a tool for your own learning.  The trick is that once the lesson is learned; only hold on to those people who taught you through kindness, love, or acceptance.  The others are the ones you let go; they served their purpose, but their time in your life should be over.  Let them go in peace so you will be at peace in your heart, at peace with what you’ve learned, and at peace with who you are. 

It is the loved ones that have known us the longest and the deepest that understand how far we’ve come.  New folks only know you as you are now, and judge you from that perspective.  They forget that you, just as they, are an evolving human being who very well may have already grown leaps and bounds.  Only you truly know how far you’ve come or how far you need to go.  Judge yourself by your own yardstick, not your neighbors.  Recognize the mistake you just made, analyze how to correct it, put that plan into action, and then pat yourself on the back for a moment for how far you’ve come and that you still have the strength to move forward. 

~Mari B.