I was talking to a very good friend the other day about my frustration with having to spend so long growing in wisdom. How I can see how good Z looks when right now I am at A or B or C and I want a shortcut that doesn't involve D, E, F and particularly Q. Q is something I really want to avoid. But I might just have to go through it to get to Z.
In my previous post (seeking-wisdom-with-humility) I commented that perhaps being wise was being able to take advice and use others' experience to help make good decisions and this was another thing I was discussing with this friend: how frustrating it is that sometimes I have had advice or a wise word from somebody and have spent time seeking to make sure I take the advice so I don't have to look back in retrospect and only then understand, and yet I still end up looking back in retrospect and only then understanding.
She said something very wise and valuable to me. Sometimes it is only because somebody has previously said it to us that we recognise it when it does come round. I had got so involved in wanting wisdom and wanting it now that I was at risk of devaluing the journey. I need to seek, listen to and heed people's wise words and advice, but I will most likely still have to go through H, K, S and even W because they are needed to shape me as a person.
And I think that is what will then make me able to pass on wise words to others as I get older: the fact that I have been through this things and learned from experience, rather than that somebody once told me this and it seemed to work. Somebody told me this, and I thought it made sense, then I had to use it and found out it really does work. Only this second path of experience will hold enough weight to persuade the next person along the line that the idea is worth considering, and for them to then remember and apply it at the appropriate moment in their life.
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