When the Student is Ready

In our efforts to teach others or at least help others learn, we might be perplexed when they simply don’t “get it” when the lesson seems apparent to us – we might even want to force the learning experience. This often happens when parents want their children to learn from the mistakes that the parents have made, so that the children might avoid some of the painful learning experiences.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), we must learn our own lessons and it cannot be forced. If you recall those moments when you had an epiphany or when “the light bulb went on,” you might ask yourself, “Why didn’t I get it sooner?” Or we might say to ourselves “If I knew then what I know now…” or some other expression of wanting to have learned or understood sooner.

A friend of mine recently told me that “when the student is ready, the teacher appears.” Apparently, noted poet Kahlil Gibran may have also said this (as well as some other Buddhist prophets and bumper sticker purveyors), but my friend said it when I needed to hear it, or at least when this student was ready. While I still believe that the best way to predict the future is to create it and that we can positively affirm change within ourselves, change comes from learning and learning is a process that happens over time. Sometimes life’s lessons come when we are open to learning them – they come naturally – and that’s okay.

Whether you’re 50 years old or 95 years old, there remain lessons to learn everyday and that is a wonderful thing and what makes the human experience, well…so human. So give yourself permission to not know everything, to be a lifelong learner, and to allow some of your lessons, some of your own life, to happen when it happens.

"When spring comes, the grass grows by itself." – Tao Te Ching