When is sideways forward? & 3 Chinese proverbs

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

A POWERFUL CONCEPT
BUT IT REQUIRES A WILLINGNESS TO LEARN
ARE YOU TEACHABLE?

He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.

I have tried to learn many many things, and I can tell you this: this Chinese proverb is wrong. It's not FIVE MINUTES. If learning only required us to be fools for five minutes we would all be fishermen. Learning takes a life time. But, regardless of how long it takes to learn, I would rather be moving forward (or sideways, or backwards) than standing still.

Snowbird.

And there I found myself today, wrestling with heavy internal doubt (once again) on the side of a mountain. Not afraid, not confident, but moving...sideways. For the sake of optimism I will say "I traversed across the slope". In the moment, it felt like a failure. But it was rather, a step sideways. I didn't fall, this time. And so goes the learning process. The next run on which I encountered doubt, I was able to ski with greater confidence. Now I am happily relishing in my reassured ego of having successfully moved sideways...which ended up being a step forward.

I am consequently grateful for patient, encouraging, and non-judgemental fishermen. Teachers who provide fish for me to feast upon until I am able to catch them for myself.

And, maybe in the end, it's okay to doubt.

Deep doubts, deep wisdom; small doubts, little wisdom.