What’s up with accidental learnings?

I am an active learner but I realised that most of the lessons that stick with me are not the ones that I seek out actively from mediums such as books but the ones which catch me by surprise. The ones that are accidental. The ones that are valueless and painful on the surface but hold an ocean of meaning. The ones that emerge, as the sun does, after a dark night, after the wreckage.

These are the lessons that have the power to transform and stick with me long after the events in themselves lose significance. The learning always remains potent.

Examples make sense (at least to me!). This one is a very recent one:

I believed that I had transcended above mediocre emotions. I almost started to believe that I was invincible – the divine kind.

With such pride, I walked around. No, I flew around.

Then, one fine day.

Wait for it.

One, two, three.

I was brought to the ground. I felt a million emotions in one day. I was a living dead for two whole months.

And, then it all started to make sense. Little by little. Day by day. Things came back into perspective.

Now, that I look back at it, I think it was an extremely necessary mistake lesson.

I asked myself a very important question: If I had known the order of events and the accompanying drama involved, would I have still gone through it or would I have avoided it? 

I would have gone through it. Not once, not twice, but as many times as it was necessary.

I became much more aware of myself. I was able to reprioritise. I learnt about the things that I pretended to love but which I actually did not care about. I learnt that trust was a two-way street. I learnt to not judge the book by its cover. I learnt that a stitch in time saves nine. I learnt the value of friendship. I learnt that I was still able to feel.

Most of all, I learnt about the things that had the power to heal me.

That’s all. I am accidentally learning.