Learning the Hard Way

We all learn lessons the hard way from time to time. Sometimes it's because we just don't want to listen to people who really know better - like when you're a little kid and your mom tells you not to touch something hot. A lot of the time, though, it's just because no one ever thought of warning you away from something. That's how we learn lessons like "Don't clean your glasses with medicated tissues" or "Don't stand on a rolling chair to reach a high shelf" or "Don't try to fix a stuck syringe plunger by pushing it down on the counter top while the syringe is still full" (for the record, that one was my mom, not me).
Those are all silly, humorous examples. Sometimes, though, the lessons are a little more serious and hurt a little more in the learning process. Sometimes, they're quite a bit more embarrassing. Sometimes there is no easy way to learn certain lessons. And sometimes, the learning-the-hard-way experience could easily be avoided if we would just swallow our pride enough to ask someone who knows more than us.
I'm thinking in particular about my own experiences learning about writing and the literary world. I was fourteen when I realized that I was going to be a professional writer. At the time, I had a pretty severe case of the Sacred Art Syndrome (i.e. 'My work is the product of my genius, and to edit would be sacrilege!'). Needless to say, I wasn't exactly eager to admit to anyone that I had no idea what I was doing when it came to things like self-editing or submitting work to publications. So I learned a lot of lessons the hard way and endured quite a bit of embarrassment - all of which could have been avoided if I could have just swallowed a gulp or two of pride.

Lessons like those are part of what make life so interesting and (at times) entertaining. And it's at times like this, setting out at the beginning of a new year, while most people are making resolutions for what they plan to do in the upcoming year, that I like to look back instead at what I've learned in the past year. Some things are lessons that have come the hard way - like moving on after the loss of my grandparents. Some lessons I've learned from books as I continue my studies at home - like the importance of vigilance on the part of citizens, to prevent things like the holocaust ever happening again. Some lessons I never knew existed or imagined learning, but they've come with time as I live longer, experience more, and grow closer to God - lessons that I'm not even sure can be put into words.
So instead of making resolutions, I'm looking back over what I learned in 2011, and looking forward to learning even more in 2012.
Life is a hard teacher, no doubt about it. But in the end, the lessons learned from life are the ones that mean the most and stick with you the best. And when the Life you're learning from is also the Way and the Truth, it makes the hard lessons a joy.

What hard lessons have you learned over the past year?