In the original 1937 Walt Disney movie, Snow White and the seven dwarfs, the evil Queen had in her possession a magic mirror that would answer any question. As the story goes, she was a vain Queen and would always ask the mirror, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of us all”. The mirror would then dutifully give her the correct answer. How many of us would love to get a mirror like that? We could ask it all our life’s difficult questions and get a suitable answer that will enable us to develop and grow as individuals. However, maybe we already have an accurate mirror at our disposal?
The people that come into our life are our mirrors. They are our teachers. Most people would probably envisage this person to be a distinguished person of good standing within the community. It could well be, but in all likely hood, it is the person that pushes all our buttons and forces us to react. They have come to teach us life lessons. They mirror or reflect back issues that we want to learn in this lifetime. For instance, you might have a person in your life where a relationship is formed, i.e. a friendship, a lover, a marriage, etc and they break or betray your trust. They may be reflecting back to you that your life lesson is to learn to forgive. The person may display inappropriate behaviour towards you and other people and they really “cross the line”. They may be reflecting back to you that your life lesson is to learn to set boundaries.
You might ask yourself, “Life lessons are all fair and well, but why did I attract these specific people into my life?” If you take two magnets and place them together at similar poles, they will repel each other. However, if you place the two magnets together at opposing poles, they will attract each other. So, as the old adage goes, “opposites attract” and maybe it’s the same with people and life lessons?
In the above example, your life lesson might have been to learn how to forgive when that person broke or betrayed your trust. The lesson that you may be mirroring or reflecting back for them to learn, might be one of humility, humbleness and having the ability to apologise. If your life lesson is to learn to set boundaries, the lesson you could be reflecting back to them is for them to be able to honour and respect other people’s boundaries. The teacher now becomes the student.
People come and go throughout our lives enabling us to learn and teach new lessons. They provide an important service for our fulfilment of self discovery. Our personal growth and development increases as we learn and teach each new lesson. This cycle of lessons learnt and taught continues so that we may become more and more refined, thus ensuring that lifelong learning takes place. So be gentle with those people in your life and show them love and gratitude for the lessons that they bring.
“All of Life is opportunity, if but only we had the eyes to see.”
