Life Lessons

One of the thoughts with reincarnation is that you have lessons to learn in each lifetime. Of course, this concept exists outside of the belief in reincarnation, too.  This morning I was thinking about this and realized it was a good exercise to consider what one has learned in a lifetime, regardless of if you believe in reincarnation or not. 
What have you learned in this lifetime? What are you better at now than you were when you were a teenager? What parts of your personality are different? How have you changed on this life path?It's logical to assume that things we're "better" at are things we've learned in this lifetime. It seems worthy to make note of those.

I'm definitely more gracious than I used to be. I have the capacity to be quite unpleasant. I apologize if you were ever in the path of that. I'm kinder now.

I used to be somewhat "dismissive" of people who had problems I thought were of their own making. Now I've learned that our "own making" is pretty nebulous - either for the obvious reasons or more obscure ones like we just don't have the skills or opportunities to make different decisions. The idea of "pulling ourselves up by our boot straps" or  "making good decisions" or "working hard" or whatever other euphemism we use to congratulate ourselves is all an illusion. Those of us who have lives that are going pretty smoothly should be thankful for that, and realize the phrase, "But by the Grace of God, there go I," is true wisdom.

I'll be thinking more about this in the coming weeks. I'm sure I've learned other lessons in this lifetime. There's a related train of thought that we come into the world with some knowledge gained in our previous lives.

Unfounded fears are said to point to causes of deaths in previous lives. And things we seem to "just know" may be lessons learned in previous lives. Regardless of the belief system involved, I think it's worthwhile to consider all of these things.