Experience: Lessons from 13 Weeks of Waiting

Benjamin Franklin once said,

 “Experience is the best teacher, but a fool will learn from no other.”

Blessed is the one who learns from experience. Cursed is the one who refuses.

I come from a long line of worriers—my grandmother, my mother. It’s a family trait, baked into the DNA and nearly impossible to evict.

The last quarter of 2025 tied us in knots and painted us into corners. A summer water leak forced us into a hotel while repairs crawled along. Our furniture vanished into a warehouse somewhere out there in the ether. The insurance bureaucracy slammed on the brakes for weeks.

None of that was pleasant. But as Oscar Wilde said,

“Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.” You get the pain first. The lesson comes later.

Well, the hammers are swinging again. And looking back over those thirteen long weeks, here are four lessons I learned about surviving difficult seasons.

1. You don’t manage life—you manage you.

Life delivers what I call gravity problems. Gravity isn’t negotiable, and neither are things like weather, illness, or traffic. You can’t fix them—you can only adjust yourself around them. Accept what you can’t change, or let it raise your blood pressure. Some things you just have to live through.

2. Tomorrow’s trouble isn’t worth today’s energy.

We imagine worse than reality. Most of my worries fade when the sun rises. Take a day at a time—that’s all you’ve got, anyway.

Mitch Albom’s novel Twice tells of a man who can go back and erase mistakes. Albom calls it fiction because that’s exactly what it is. Don’t let what you can’t do nudge out what you can do .

Jesus said it best:“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34)

3. Stop forecasting—you’re terrible at it.

I’ve learned I’m no prophet. Worry acts like a magnifying glass—it makes everything look larger and darker than it is. Wait for the real bill before you pay imaginary ones. Don’t let a cracked crystal ball distort your peace. Just wait and see.

4. Action beats anxiety.

When life stalls, move something—anything. Clean a drawer. Fold laundry. Rake leaves. Progress in one corner of life can jump-start another. Don’t let what you can’t do crowd out what you can. Momentum always beats standing still.

Nothing erases problems—that’s part of daily life. But when you learn, correct, and move forward, you gain something better than comfort. You gain wisdom. And next time, you’ll handle it better.