resipiscence

When I saw this one come down the pipe from A Word a Day, I thought, “cool, there’s a word for that.”

resipiscent

[From Latin resipiscere (to recover one's senses), from re- (again) + sapere (to taste, to know). Ultimately from Indo-European root sep- (to taste or perceive) that is also the source of sage, savant, savvy, savor, sapid, sapient, and insipid.]
Having returned to a saner mind.

resipiscence

[L. resipiscentia, from resipiscere to recover one's senses: cf. F. résipiscence.]
Wisdom derived from severe experience; hence, repentance.

So there’s a single word to sum up the experience of hard-won wisdom, the kind that we don’t necessarily seek but that always reveals itself as a valuable blessing…those Romans thought of everything. It seems that the human condition really hasn’t changed that much despite having been given several thousand years to evolve.