Wisdom
It’s a word that makes some of us cringe a little: wisdom.
Because pretty much anyone who claims to have it is automatically suspicious, right?
It’s those who don’t claim to have it who very often do.
My contention is this: if you are living in a manner open to growth and change, the trade-off for the physical infirmities that come with age is the accumulation of wisdom: of internal tools so that you are able to contend calmly with adversity, of a big-picture perspective that helps you not to sweat the small stuff. And the recognition that nearly all of it is, in the end, small stuff.
Wisdom comes with experience: experience in relating with others, in navigating life’s challenges, in learning how to find happiness and contentment in the course of living. Wisdom brings a deep understanding of priorities, with love and kindness outweighing such things as acquisition of wealth. And it teaches us patience.
It is, like all things, not perfect. And we don’t always live in our wisdom: when triggered, when angry, when defensive we may do or say things that our wisdom knows will be counterproductive. But we do them anyway, and thus accumulate a little more experience that may help us to be wiser the next time.
Atheopaganism is a path about joy, connection and wisdom. It encourages us to know ourselves, to cultivate wise values, to celebrate love and the many pleasures of this life.
So don’t undersell your own wisdom. It’s there, whether or not you can access it at any given time. With experience, it will come more readily to hand.
It’s growing as you do. Cultivate it. Listen to that calm, experienced voice in your head, however weak it may seem.
Grow to be wiser. At the end of the day, it will bring you deeper contentment than any material pleasures. It will add to the lives of those around you.
It will contribute to the creation of a better, kinder world.
Mark Green
Author of ATHEOPAGANISM: An Earth-Honoring Path Rooted in Science and ROUND WE DANCE: Creating Meaning Through Seasonal Rituals, Mark Green is the initiator of the Atheopagan path and editor at the Atheopaganism blog. He volunteers as a staffer to the Atheopagan Society Council to support the growth of Atheopaganism throughout the world. In his home of Sonoma County, California, in the occupied ancestral lands of the Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok peoples, he is best known as an environmental activist and founder of Sonoma County Conservation Action, the largest environmental activism group in his region. He continues to work in the conservation sphere, focusing particularly on protection of natural landscapes on California's federal public lands.
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