Life lessons. Do they ever stop? Doesn't there come a time when all of the important life lessons one must learn are under one's belt? A time when one can coast for a little while without having to graduate to yet another level of lesson learning or learning the same lesson more than once? Or is that when we're dead?Is it me, or must every important lesson learned come with it's own special little bundle of angst, frustration, loss and/or discomfort? How many times must one experience a lesson before it's embedded in the soul and part of a being? Is there some formula that can help one internalize the lessons they've learned and maximize their impact? Perhaps the secret is to learn a lesson well enough so as to teach it to someone else.
Don't get me wrong. In answer to my own question, not all lessons come with discomfort, etc. I suppose good examples would be learning to give of oneself, to share what you have with others, to think outside of your own "head" as it were. To hold your tongue, to pick your battle, give the benefit of doubt when all your instincts are saying otherwise. There's little doubt that practicing any or all of these will teach you something. Or do we even have control over any of it?
The quote in Einsteins picture-bubble above says: "Everything is determined by forces over which we have no control. It is determined for the insect as well as for the star. Human beings, vegetables or cosmic dust - we all dance to a mysterious tune - intoned in the distance by an invisible piper."
Could it be as simple as that? All the minutia in life sure does make it difficult to believe it could be.