Personal Wisdom (Experience)

[SpiritMan]

Once upon a time, a long time ago when In lived in Danville, Illinois there were many things I didn’t know much about because I was about 1,000 miles from one coast and 2,000 miles from another coast. I was surrounded by a lot of people who thought they knew more than they really did. There were many conversations and many ideas out there in the bigger world that just went right over my head. I lived a little more than 35 miles from a major university. Now there were a lot of people in my hometown who were intimidated by that university with all “them there” intellectuals talking all those conversations that went right over my head. Well, being the outsider I am, I just went over to that university and got a job in the library. Imagine sitting on top of one of the largest educational informational resources in the United States!

So instead of staying around listening to a lot of BS from people who were totally consumed in fear and dedicated to protecting their ignorance at all costs, I went out into the world to devour all the experience and knowledge I could possibly absorb. Bottom line: everyone has that same choice. At some point Ignorance is a personal decision. If one has enough brain power to acknowledge that things are going over one’s head then that person also has enough brain power to do something about it!

[sincere]

It is very sad Spiritman that many don't take the opportunity to learn more, see more and experience something different. 

Since I moved to Nashville a male friend of mine wanted to move also to get out of Danville.  Since he's moved he loves it!   But he has to hear the nagging from his mother and her Danville attitude, "I don't know why you wanted to move to Nashville when you had a good paying job in Danville."  She just doesn't get it....

His grandmother actually told him that he was too young to move that far away from home.   And he's 24!!!!

It's ridiculous that everyone who has the power to change Danville's "Brain Drain" do nothing about it.  I was very disappointed when I had moved back and had to move again ASAP.  Not only because I had to accept a job making $15,000 less than I was worth, but I couldn't find decent housing for a very long time.

[Bingo]

people who were totally consumed in fear and dedicated to protecting their ignorance at all costs

Spiritman this is my new favorite ...dedicated to protecting their ignorance at all costs.

Thank you!!

[Guardian Angel]

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference,  and thank you for this safe haven....

[elefan]

Gosh I think I could write a book on personal wisdom.  Life has taken me down some very different roads and there have been so many roadblocks and unexpected turns and twists.  I think my experiences have caused me to become a very open and understanding person and even though I would never wish some of my experiences on anyone else I can honestly say that I have walked away from most things having learned and grown.  I think everytime my road in life becomes twisted I grow that much more.  Life is the greatest teacher.

[Bingo]

Elefan I have no way of knowing anything about the nature of the twists and turns your life's road has taken, or the experiences that have taught you personal wisdom, but I very much enjoy your attitude and the way you have apparently risen above the roadblocks you have encountered.

[Guardian Angel]

I have shared some of my experiences with elefan and I agree with her statement. 

I learned a long time ago, when life's problems overwhelm you it does no good to try to go around, under, or over them, you must go through them in order to grow.  I've always stood up and faced them head on and I, like elefan feel I have grown because of them.  Life is a great teacher, but so is death, it teaches you to live.....

[SpiritMan]

Gosh I think I could write a book on personal wisdom.  Life has taken me down some very different roads and there have been so many roadblocks and unexpected turns and twists.  I think my experiences have caused me to become a very open and understanding person and even though I would never wish some of my experiences on anyone else I can honestly say that I have walked away from most things having learned and grown.  I think everytime my road in life becomes twisted I grow that much more.  Life is the greatest teacher.

To quote GA: Amen!  There are so many times when I see difficult things in people's lives and I just smile inside because I know they wouldn't understand if I vocalized what I am thinking. The trick to a less stressful life is to understand that growth and wisdom do wait on the other end of suffering. There are moments when I see that life is neither good nor bad, it just is. No matter how much we try to protect ourselves, we will suffer sometimes and we will be happy sometimes. That's life! 

[Curt]

   I read a book called " the Path of the Peacefull Warrior " And there was one concept that has stuck with me since - " There is no such thing as an inconsequential moment ."
   This life is self limiting in that we leave it at some point and rarely pay much attention to the moment we are in and the fact that the moment is the only one like it and just for us.  Even those times we would like to erase would be to our expense. There is nothing wrong with feeling intensely - it is important not to allow feelings to perpetuate a lack of awareness for the moment when we live at no other time. Having meditated most of my adult life has taught me to attend to the meaningless thread of mundane thought and make the effort to move beyond it.
   Stress is a part and parcel of todays world - to push past it to see the joy can be awfully difficult for the average person who knows nothing of meditation or fears it because of the beliefs of family or community.( I think that was a run on sentence ?!)

[Guardian Angel]

I agree, and in todays world too much medication is used to get beyond those mundane thoughts thus robbing the person of the ability to learn to move beyond them on their own. Usually the medication creates physical problems the person wouldn't ordinarily experience, so much of the time it's a lose, lose situation.

[SpiritMan]

In the annals of history a century is no more than a few pages on any given subject. A century in most human lives however, is something that is beyond the experience of that life. We as human beings grossly over exaggerate the extent of our time on earth and consequently underestimate the importance of what we do with the little time we have!

Robert Starkey
Notes To Myself
The Collected Works of a Truth Fairy
1994 

[Curt]

   Most of the time I need to remember that only when I realize that I don't know much am I on the path of wisdom. Keeping an open mind to new thought and new ideas is difficult at best when the concept of "knowing" is our credo.
   Much of what I thought I knew is nothing compared to what I might learn when I can move beyond these static fragments of information. The basic precept of meditation is attainment of nirvana which literally translates as " blown out or blown away". To experience that which is beyond our understanding is a goal of human kind since the beginning of time. 

[SpiritMan]

In the few times I have reached what I believe was nirvana I always felt I was returning from another place. The sense of "knowing" in that other place is not based on those static fragments of information you speak of. The sense of know in the state of nirvana is more a sense of accepting everything without judgment in a place where equality is all that exists. There are things I know from nirvana that I fear to say in this place of static fragments. If one hasn't been there it is futile to try to explain something that can only be experienced. the most profound thing I have learned and brought back to this place is the understanding that fear of death is the most irrational thing we embrace.

[Guardian Angel]

I had trouble deciding where to post this but I think here is the perfect place.......

What is it like to be Old?

Old age, I decided, is a gift.  I am now,  probably for the first time in my life,
the person I have always wanted to be.

Oh, not my body!  I sometimes despair
over my body ...  the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the   sagging butt.

And often I am  taken aback by that old person that lives in my miror  but I don't agonize over those things for long.  I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life,  my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly.

As I've aged,  I've become more kind to myself,
and less critical of myself.   I've become my own friend.  I don't chide myself for eating that extra
cookie,  or for not making my bed,  or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn't need, but looks so avant-garde on my patio. 

I am entitled to overeat, to be messy, to be extravagant.   I have seen too many dear friend leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 a.m., and sleep until noon?

I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 60's, and if I,  at the same time,
wish to weep over a lost love... I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the bikini set.

They, too, will get old.   I know I am sometimes forgetful.  But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten and I eventually remember the important things.

Sure,  over the years,  my heart has been broken.  How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers,
or even when a beloved pet gets hit by a car?

But broken hearts are what give us strength
and understanding and compassion.   A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect

I am so blessed to have lived long enough
to have my hair turn gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. 

I can say "no", and mean it.  I can say "yes", and mean it.  As you get older, it is easier to be positive.  You care less about what other people think.  I don't question myself anymore.  I've even earned the right to be wrong. So, to answer your question,  I like being old.   

It has set me free.  I like the person I have become.  I am not going to live forever,  but while I am still here,  I will not waste time lamenting what could have been,  or worrying about what will be.    And I shall eat dessert every single day! 
 

[Veda]

GA . . . I needed that today.  I was feeling sorry for myself and about to put that cupcake back in the pantry, but decided to get back on the net and here was your post.

Who ever wrote it spoke the truth, and I needed that talking to today.  Now I'm going to eat that cupcake!

I've copied off  the thought and will refer back to it often.