We should be careful to get out of an experience only the wisdom that is in it — and stop there; lest we be like the cat that sits down on a hot stove-lid. She will never sit down on a hot stove-lid again — and that is well; but also she will never sit down on a cold one anymore. – Mark Twain, Following the Equator, Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar

Experience can teach us many things, but no two circumstances are ever alike. We must take care not to summarily overlay lessons of the past on the new shoots of circumstance, for in so doing we risk missing the newness, beauty, and wonder of life.