Because Some Lessons Are Worth Remembering the First Time
I’ve been wrestling with something lately.
Lessons.
Life lessons. Spiritual lessons. Universal lessons. Whatever you want to call them.
You know, those little experiences the universe sends your way to teach you something about yourself, your boundaries, your choices, or the way you’re navigating this beautiful, chaotic human existence.
Well, I’ve decided I’m changing the name.
I’m no longer calling them lessons.
I’m calling them Forget-Me-Nots.
Because, quite frankly, I am tired of having to learn the same lesson fifty times before I finally get it the first time!
I mean, seriously, universe. I got it. Or at least I’m trying to get it. Can we move on?
And that’s where the Forget-Me-Nots come in.
Instead of looking at these experiences as lessons that I somehow failed to learn, I’m choosing to see them as reminders.
Little universal love notes that say:
Hey girl, remember this.
Remember how that made you feel.
Remember how that situation knocked you off balance.
Remember how quickly something that seemed harmless managed to throw your entire energy out of alignment.
Remember the things that brought you back to old patterns and old behaviors, or reminded you of the person you were when alcohol was running the show.
Forget. Me. Not.
Not because I need to carry the pain around with me, but because I want to carry the wisdom.
And there is a big difference.
From Lessons to Little Reminders
I’ve noticed something really interesting about myself.
These Forget-Me-Nots come fast.
But they used to leave slowly.
Oh honey, did they leave slowly.
I could take one uncomfortable experience and turn it into an entire emotional residency. I’d unpack my bags, rearrange the furniture, and practically start forwarding my mail to whatever situation had knocked me off course.
And the healing?
Well, that could take a while.
But something has changed.
The more I’ve learned about myself, the more grace I’ve started giving myself.
And the more grace I give myself, the faster I seem to heal.
It’s almost like I’ve finally figured out that I don’t have to punish myself for being human.
Imagine that!
I can make a mistake, recognize what happened, acknowledge how it made me feel, and move forward without dragging the entire experience behind me like a suitcase with a broken wheel.
I can simply say:
Well, that was a Forget-Me-Not.
And keep it moving.
Earth School Is No Joke
I truly believe that part of why we’re here is to learn how to live in these human bodies.
How to navigate life in the flesh.
How to feel all these emotions, experience all these relationships, make all these choices, and somehow find our way back to love, peace, and understanding.
And let me tell you something.
Earth is not that easy!
This human experience is no joke.
We’ve got feelings, fears, expectations, attachments, disappointments, desires, and an ego that occasionally likes to grab the steering wheel and drive us straight into a ditch.
But even with all of that?
I think Earth is the most beautiful experience.
Because every single Forget-Me-Not gives us something.
Awareness.
Understanding.
Compassion.
Wisdom.
And sometimes, the greatest gift of all: the ability to recognize what no longer belongs in our lives.
Those are priceless gifts.
Those are the things I want to take with me throughout the rest of my existence here on Earth.
Not the resentment. Not the regret. Not the shame.
Just the wisdom.
No More Oh-Fuck-Me Moments
And can we talk about how much lighter this feels?
Because for a long time, some of these experiences felt less like life lessons and more like oh-fuck-me moments.
You know the ones.
The moments when you realize you’ve done it again.
You’ve ignored your intuition.
You’ve entertained something you knew wasn’t good for you.
You’ve allowed something to disrupt your peace.
And suddenly you’re standing there thinking, Really? Again?
But what if, instead of getting frustrated with ourselves, we simply recognized the reminder?
What if we stopped treating every uncomfortable experience like a personal failure?
What if we started treating it like information?
Because that’s really what it is.
Information about ourselves.
Information about what works for us and what doesn’t.
Information about the people, places, habits, and circumstances that either nourish our spirits or drain our energy.
And the more information we gather, the better equipped we become to navigate this beautiful life.
I’m Not Here Just to Survive
Something else occurred to me while I was thinking about all of this.
I kept wanting to say that I’m here to learn, thrive, slay, and survive.
But then I caught myself.
Survive?
Ugh. That sounds so harsh.
I don’t want to spend my whole life surviving.
I’ve done plenty of that.
I want to live.
I want to wake up excited about being here.
I want to laugh, love, learn, create, connect, and experience all the beautiful things this world has to offer.
I want to be able to move through difficult experiences without allowing them to become my entire identity.
I want to give myself grace.
I want to recognize the reminder, receive the wisdom, and get right back to living.
Because isn’t that the whole point?
As we live, we learn.
And as we learn, we grow.
And as we grow, we begin to realize that life doesn’t have to be one long series of painful lessons.
Sometimes it can simply be a beautiful collection of Forget-Me-Nots.
Little reminders scattered along our paths, helping us remember who we are, what we’ve learned, and how far we’ve come.
So here’s to the Forget-Me-Nots.
The uncomfortable ones.
The beautiful ones.
The ones that make us laugh at ourselves.
And even the ones that make us say, Oh, for God’s sake, not this again!
May we receive them with grace, carry their wisdom lightly, and remember what they came to teach us.
Because I’m no longer interested in learning the same lesson fifty times.
I’m ready to remember it the first time.
Forget-Me-Not. Live, Learn, and Let It Be.
Because Brooks.
