Yesterday my wonderful spiritual director read an amazing poem to me about Wisdom. The poem talks about how life carves out, deepens, breaks open, and makes one a translucent vessel for the light to shine through. None of those things sound very pleasant, but I realize that difficult life experiences, the ones that break us open and carve us out, are the very things that give us Wisdom.
It is an interesting facet of human nature that we remember the difficult times in our lives before we remember the easy ones. We tend to look back with a kind of pride that we survived those tough times. We were changed by them. They were the pivotal times in our lives that molded us and shaped us into different people than we were before. They were the fertilizer that made us grow into more mature and wiser human beings. However, they are usually not what we would voluntarily choose.
I have written before about grief and the transformational power of the dark. It is in the dark that we begin the growth process. The dark is where we put down deep roots before we begin to reach toward the light. Without deep roots we are tossed and turned in the wind. We are unable to be grounded or centered. We feel adrift and alone.
Yesterday I drew an Oracle card that said, “Time for a Nap.” In thinking about this card, it seems that it is very important, when one is faced with the dark, to relax into it, to rest, to nap, to let our roots grow deep and strong. It is important that we remember that as we are carved out and broken open that we then become a vessel that holds deep wisdom.
There is a reason that we seek the wisdom of the elders. Wise elders are the people who, by virtue of having lived the longest, have generally had more difficult experiences that they have come through. They have grown through these experiences and have learned that the tough times are the times that we learn the most. They then become the translucent vessel of Lady Wisdom (Sophia) shining forth for others and sharing their hard-earned knowledge with whomever is willing to hear.
Don’t be afraid of the dark, of the carving out, the deepening, the breaking open. It is what gives you Wisdom and makes you into a Wise elder.
