2021 – The Gaining of Wisdom and Letting Go of Knowledge.

Firstly, what is the difference between wisdom and knowledge? Whilst dictionary definitions of these words overlap in many ways, the main difference between the two, is that wisdom is applied knowledge, whilst knowledge can be ‘known’, but not necessarily applied or experienced. Another way of looking at this is knowing about something vs knowing something from experience. Most of us at some point have been guilty of information gathering about something but not applying it. That is, knowledge without wisdom. Wisdom has knowledge within it, but unapplied knowledge has no wisdom.

When we apply knowledge, we gain wisdom. In essence wisdom is created and expanded by what we experience, and knowledge is something we know about, without experiencing it. Whilst reading about baking gives me knowledge, the wisdom can only come from being in the kitchen and failing forward with our successes and failures. Wisdom runs deep, knowledge unapplied does not. Wisdom connects to our essence, our being. Depending on how you choose to look at 2020, there is an opportunity to expand and deepen our sense of who we are and most importantly, who we choose to become in 2021. This expanded awareness contributes immensely to who we are in the form of wisdom.

Ok, so what does this all mean for everyday living? The wiser we become the better equipped we are to handle life’s guaranteed uncertainties. There has rarely been a year in recent living memory that has had as many changes and challenges as 2020. The year that has passed is riddled in choice points of meaning. This is a fancy way of saying, you take out of the year what you make of it. When faced with acute doses of uncertainty it gives us an opportunity to become clearer. Clearer in what matters more or the most.

The human condition has a perpetual need for growth, like everything in nature. The fundamental precursor to all growth is uncertainty. Along with all this can be pain. Call them growing pains perhaps as we are almost forced to let go of the past so we can get on with it. This past year has been a more obvious forcing of change. Change is personally evolving toward love instead of fear.

Uncertainty amplifies who you have been. All uncertainties are opportunities to choose who you want to evolve into. For what it’s worth, I believe the ultimate goal is to become an unconditionally loving human being who sees us all as one consciousness being expressed via 7 billion different versions. Whilst personally I am a long way off being unconditionally loving 24/7, experiencing moments of unconditional kindness toward a stranger is such a beautiful thing.  Recognising as a parent, that if I think of every person I see as someone’s son or daughter, it brings me closer to love rather than judgement (fear) of that person.

Even though experiencing uncertainty may bring pain, it doesn’t mean we have to suffer.   

Wisdom does not prevent pain, but it does prevent suffering.

Pain in life is a natural inevitability. Suffering is a choice. A choice? Really? Yes. Suffering is derived from when we stare at our pain far to long. Pain is a normal reaction to a difficult situation. Suffering is holding on far too long to that pain. Pain will reduce over time, but if we hold on tightly to that pain it transforms into suffering. Pain is an organic part of our emotional and spiritual growth. Suffering is generated by what we think of our pain, the meaning we give our pain.

If we have lost someone near and very dear, the pain initially is incredibly intense and beyond description. Over time the pain changes form and reduces in intensity. If the meaning I give that loss after many months or years is that I can’t go on and live my life without that person I will suffer. The suffering comes from not letting go. People confuse letting go with forgetting. We never will forget but we can let go. Yes, we can let go without forgetting.

This is the same with our relationship with time. The longer we hold on to how things once were we will have pain and suffering. Instead, if we let go to how things were or how they are ‘meant’ to be, we will experience pain for a little longer but the suffering stops. So many people allow aspects of their past to play a significant role in their present. There is so much of our past that has no business being in our present. If our present is full of our past, more so than our present, we will have pain and suffering!

In any given moment we can choose who we want to become by choosing to respond differently to an everyday situation. If we don’t do this consciously, our past will have a say. For example, if I see a friend across the street and wave hello and they don’t wave back. How will I respond? What meaning do we give it? If I choose to feel sad and rejected, then I am being a slave to my past. This is because the sadness and rejection is an echo of all the times in my past I may have been let down, rejected or even betrayed.

These micro moments of life are an opportunity to change. I can choose to give my friend not waving back simply the meaning they just didn’t see me. I am changing the way I respond consciously. This may not seem a big deal, but an accumulation of these micro changes in micro moments evolves us, moving us toward love instead of fear. It’s a move away from suffering and learning to surf through various pains we will experience via life’s guaranteed uncertainties.

It has been said to be the change you want to see in the world. What if we all simply become the change we want to see in our own lives and the world will take care of itself. This adds to our wisdom without compromising knowledge. Sometimes our ‘knowledge’ can compromise our wisdom. In other words, sometimes we need to stop overthinking things (knowledge) and just be the love (wisdom) our world needs more of in 2021.

Thanks so much for reading. Love, Joe.