Learning From Experience

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“Turn your wounds into wisdom.” – Oprah Winfrey

Ten years ago (I know because I found the picture), I was walking my dog on a busy neighborhood street and he found a stuffed animal. A cute little tiger with a soft white belly and my dog proudly picked it up and carried it all the way home until he could stow it away on one of his dog blankets.

While I didn’t think much of it at the time, I now realize with great horror that it likely was some child’s precious stuffy that got tossed out of a car in a moment of great emotion. I’ll never actually know if the family went to look for it but by allowing my dog to carry it home, we certainly made it unfindable.

Before bed, my 6-year-old daughter and I take turns reading. She practices her reading skills and then I read a few pages of something longer we are working on. We just finished J.K. Rowling’s The Christmas Pig in which a child loses his most precious friend, a stuffy that his step-sister throws out the window in a moment of rage. The child then takes a precarious Christmas Eve trip to the Land of the Lost to try to retrieve it. In J.K. Rowling’s incredibly imaginative tale, there are several places the things we lose go – Mislaid (think eyeglasses), Disposable (e.g. batteries), Bother-Its-Gone (that poem you penned on the back of a napkin), The Wastes of the Unlamented (the tchotchke you never wanted to buy in the first place), The City of the Missed (where we meet someone’s Principles) and The Island of the Beloved (where Santa lives).

In the story, she includes not only things that we lose like a diamond earring but also the intangibles – the bad habits, the tendency to bully, our pretenses, ambition, power and hope. It is so incredibly insightful that it is one of those books that was a pleasure for me to read as much as my daughter to listen to.

Which brings me back to the stuffy I let my dog take home. Often it’s only through experience that we can relate to someone else’s pain. This is the case now that I realize that stuffy was likely a well-loved object of a kid’s affection. Fortunately, my kids have not (yet) thrown a stuffy out the car window, but I have spent many fretful moments in a full sweat looking for the item that we just HAVE TO HAVE before going to sleep.

Suffering, as much as we might not like it, helps us to know each other.

19 thoughts on “Learning From Experience”

  2. I recall seeing your dog on an FBI “Wanted” poster! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. The Rowling book sounds like one we should all read, Wynne Thank you.

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  4. Thank you Wynne. So true. Wisdom comes through our experiences and they’re often the most unpleasant ones that teach us the most. I’m so thankful God has recycled my wounds into something good and beneficial for me and used me, in turn, to help others.

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    1. I love how you put it, Nancy. “I’m so thankful God has recycled my wounds into something good and beneficial for me and used me, in turn, to help others.”

      Amen to that! ❤

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  6. That is too bad about the stuffie, but if it’s any comfort, children are incredibly resilient and will get over it. And if not, that’s what therapy is for. 😆

    Jokes aside, another insightful post and I agree that sometimes we can only learn things through experience.

    I love that you’re reading JK Rowling with your daughter. I hope to do the Harry Potter series with T one day.

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    1. I’m laughing about therapy!

      I’ve read the first four Harry Potter books to my daughter. At first it seemed like a ridiculously long task but it’s been so fun. Now we are working on Percy Jackson and also the Narnia books. I think this is more for me than for her! 😀 Maybe that’ll be another topic for therapy. 😀

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  7. Reading together is a beautiful feeling, my partner and I read to each other every night!
    Isn’t it interesting to suddenly remember something that happened in the past and relate to it the moment now and get a better insight, like they say in hindsight. Experiences are true teachers, indeed.

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  8. Beautiful post!
    I like the way you have explained Empathy : “Often it’s only through experience that we can relate to someone else’s pain.”
    Enjoy your ‘quality reading time” with your daughter, Wynne.
    Chaya

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