A couple of days ago, I was having an interesting conversation with my daughter. She shared with me that from her perspective at 24, the decade from age 13-23 was a crazy period. She was learning things about how people and the world work. She was figuring out how to maneuver through the obstacles in life. She remembers being so sure about the things she thought and living with a conviction that only the young and unknowing can have. But now, at age 24, she is realizing that her perspective will change over time and her ideals with evolve as she experiences more life and widens her perspective. I just listened and nodded.
I thought, you’re right! We tried to tell you this then. We tried to tell you we weren’t the enemy. We tried to tell you the things of which you were so certain in the moment, that you might not later believe these thoughts could have been yours. We tried to give you a map to follow that would have made these years easier for you. Listening to her, I felt both proud that she was starting to get it, and a bit of frustration that she was just now starting to get it.
Later, I came across a quote from Marcel Proust, “We do not receive wisdom. We must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.”. If Webster is correct and wisdom is the profound understanding and application of knowledge…then Mr. Proust must be on to something. Perhaps the best any of us can do for another is provide information and trust that life will provide opportunities for us to alchemize that information into wisdom via our challenges and mistakes. It is possible that our every misstep, setback, or failure holds the most valuable lessons that shape our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Perhaps it is the trial and error of life that is the fertile ground in which our knowledge blooms into wisdom.
Now, I think that maybe it was my daughter who was doing as she should have as a child and us parents who might have been outside of our lane a bit. We were hyper-focused on imparting wisdom and not yet aware that the best we could do was pass on information. I now realize that it’s by embracing life’s ups and downs, learning from mistakes, navigating complexity, and appreciating moments of joy, that we embark on a journey of continuous growth and understanding. It is through the richness of firsthand experience that we gain the wisdom to lead meaningful lives. With that said, I encourage you to step boldly into the classroom of life and seize every opportunity to become a wiser and more enlightened being while giving others the freedom to do the same.
Wishing you endless adventures and self-discoveries,
Gena
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