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Life is the province of learning, and the wisdom we acquire throughout our
lives is the reward of existence. As we traverse the winding roads that lead
from birth to death, experience is our patient teacher. We exist, bound to
human bodies as we are, to evolve, enrolled by the universe in earth school,
an informal and individualized academy of living, being, and changing. Life’s
lessons can take many forms and present us with many challenges. There are
scores of mundane lessons that help us learn to navigate with grace, poise,
and tolerance in this world. And there are those once-in-a-lifetime lessons
that touch us so deeply that they change the course of our lives. The latter
can be heartrending, and we may wander through life as unwilling students for
a time. But the quality of our lives is based almost entirely on what we
derive from our experiences.
Earth school provides us with an education of the heart and the soul, as well
as the intellect. The scope of our instruction is dependent on our ability
and readiness to accept the lesson laid out before us in the circumstances we
face. When we find ourselves blindsided by life, we are free to choose to
close our minds or to view the inbuilt lesson in a narrow-minded way. The
notion that existence is a never-ending lesson can be dismaying at times. The
courses we undertake in earth school can be painful as well as pleasurable,
and as taxing as they are eventually rewarding. However, in every situation,
relationship, or encounter, a range of lessons can be unearthed. When we
choose to consciously take advantage of each of the lessons we are confronted
with, we gradually discover that our previous ideas about love, compassion, resilience,
grief, fear, trust, and generosity could have been half-formed.
Ultimately, when we acknowledge that growth is an integral part of life and
that attending earth school is the responsibility of every individual, the
concept of “life as lesson” no longer chafes. We can openly and joyfully look
for the blessing buried in the difficulties we face without feeling that we
are trapped in a roller-coaster ride of forced learning. Though we cannot
always know when we are experiencing a life lesson, the wisdom we accrue will
bless us with the keenest hindsight.
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