The Fruit of Wisdom

 As Summer grows ever closer, the world seems to grow a little less clever, a little less wise, and in that I think there is a true loss. It’s tough to imagine, but you can be wrong. You can make that mistake, you can make many mistakes, but if you learn nothing from your mistakes, then you’ve wasted a perfectly good opportunity to learn.

Most of my students have yet to learn this, even as they look forward to graduating in just a few short weeks. We’ve created humans who cannot learn from their own mistakes let alone, too scared to try for fear of looking foolish, and worse yet, too scared of getting the wrong answer when that’s the only way to learn. Yes, I too hesitate to admit that I am wrong, but since becoming a teacher, I can proudly say that I can make light of my mistake and use it as a teaching moment.

For those of you who need it, “the greatest masters have made mistakes, the worst students have made none.”



The Language of Wisdom has been and always will be written in mistakes and lessons. Each and every blunder, misstep, miscalculation, error and failure is a moment in time in which a seed has been planted. That seed is from the Fruit of Wisdom, it takes time to grow, time to cultivate, and time to harvest, but that first taste is often the sweetest after many bitter failures. No one tends their own farms alone, often, we begin with help from others. Help from those who came before us. Help from the lessons they spent their lives cultivating into fruit bearing trees.

“Never run with scissors.”

 

“Fire is hot.”

 

“A Bad Moment does not make a Bad Day.”

 

"Look both ways before crossing a street."

 

“You are the only one who can change who you are.”

 

“Manners maketh the man (or woman).”

 

“Your journey is different from everyone else’s.”

These lessons are older than you can imagine, each holding some truth, each a fruit of wisdom that has been planted since long before you were born, and yet they still taste just as sweet. Even as you work hard, making your own mistakes, planting your own seeds, tilling your own soil, these lessons are there.

All these lessons, each and every iota of them are all from the seeds of wisdom that others have already planted, already cultivated, and have given to you to taste on your own. So, eat your fill, but never forget to plant. Never forget to learn your own lessons from your own mistakes, never forget your own truths.