Life Lessons from Albus Dumbledore: It Does Not Do to Dwell on Dreams…

In honor of the seventh and final installment of Harry Potter, I’ve decided to share all the wonderful things the series has taught me. As I was going through all the meaningful bits of wisdom, it became clear to me that J.K. Rowling uses Professor Dumbledore as her mouthpiece to sum up the big lessons of each of the books.

Lesson One: “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.”

When Dumbledore catches Harry on one of his late night trips to stare into the fabled Mirror of Erised, he cautions him against becoming too enthralled with the images he sees there. The mirror shows the viewer whatever he secretly desires most. Most of all, Harry wants to see himself flanked by his proud parents, who were killed by the dark wizard Voldemort when he was just a baby.

In this imperfect life, it’s much too easy to dwell on what might have been. It’s too easy to look back on all the things that went wrong and say, “if only.” But as Professor Dumbledore cautions Harry, we are given but one life. There is no sense in dwelling on the paths that did not unfold before us. We must try to walk the path ahead.