I have some questions.

1)  Does anybody really read this?  I ask this because I saw some blog statistics recently; there are literally millions of blogs produced now.  Who has time, or interest, to read them?  Why do you read a blog?  Why don’t you read a blog (besides the obvious, stated above.)

2.  I also recently read, on a blog (you do have a lot of time to read them when you are on your virus bed), that nobody likes to read anything that comes across as “I’m the expert, and I have conquered all my problems.”   I so agree – I don’t either.  I love reading about the struggle.  The falling down…and then the triumphant getting up.  What struggles do you want to overcome?  How does wisdom fit into your solutions?  I’ve learned that in grief, we don’t want platitudes or head-to-head connection.  We want…can only tolerate…heart to heart connection.  I think it is the same concerning wisdom.

3.  It’s been said before, and here it is again:  “people don’t care about what matters to you; they care about what matters to them.”  (Well, people other than your family members….?)   We’re  really wondering – if you were to go to a literal town where everybody lived out wisdom – what would you want to see?  What about those people would matter to you?  What would you want to ask them?

Those are our questions.  Because, the blog Wisdom Town was created with the supposition that wisdom matters.  But introducing the topic produces a a lot to overcome.  It is a potentially ignored/deflected subject, because:

1.  Wisdom – say the word and what comes to your mind?  Grandma’s house?  Religion? (in its most negative definition.) The torture of reading little black letters on sheer white paper when it’s a sunny spring day and you want to be out there and not in this boring world of wisdom?  Is wisdom associated with stuffy, unflexible people who have nothing better to do with their lives?

2.  You want to choose your wisdom givers carefully.  There are tons of definitions of wisdom in the world.  One must guard one’s heart, wallet, mind, and everything else that false wisdom can take.  Throw the word “wisdom” out there and it can be like mentioning politics or religion.

Get on the Wisdom Town destination train?

3.  No one has the whole enchilada on wisdom.  If you’re like me, you want to check a person out before you take in anything they have to say – especially if they want to talk about wisdom.  What’s their journey?  Who do they follow?  What do they read?  Who are they accountable to?  Have they suffered anything, survived it, and are now better for it?  What’s their background – have they been tested?  What is their character like – are they all talk and no do?  Are they gracious?  Kind?  Can they lead, and well? Is their heart humble?  Are they a narcissist?  Manipulative?   Selfishly ambitious?  Consistent?  Mature?

Why in the world would you open your ear to them?

Don’t you want to know that stuff?  I do. Before I get on any train, I want to know where it’s headed.

With all that said, if you would so graciously consider my questions, and shoot us a little of your heart, we  will humbly, gratefully and carefully consider what you have to say.  (And, it will give this writer’s virus infused body a chance to chew on something other than how awful it feels.)

If we build a blog community called Wisdom Town – why would you want to come by for a visit?  Where do you want the wisdom train to take you?

Wisdom showing off

It would take a lot of smarts and a lot of engineers to figure out how to keep all that water in place.

This thought rumbles through my mind every time I’m standing at a continent’s end.  When my eyes, mesmerized, thrill at the constant turmoil of all that teeming salt water, I can’t help but chuckle.  How is it that we, little mobile sacks of bone and flesh and water, can stand before such might – such potentially overwhelming destruction, and feel freedom instead of terror?

After all, the earth’s oceans vs. land rate is 75% to 25% – approximately.  Not only are our bodies tiny in comparison to the vast seas surrounding our continents; the continents themselves are small in comparison.  Yikes!

If somebody – or Somebody – really smart hadn’t designed the whole thing, with every tumble of the earth’s crusts we’d be in a whole lot of trouble.  It took some wisdom to get our earth perfectly, exquisitely, brilliantly designed.

That kind of wisdom really rocks my world.  Maybe they exist, but I’ve never known anyone that didn’t feel a little gobsmacked the first time they stood at an ocean’s shore.  Maybe  one of the reasons most of us enjoy a day at the beach is because we know, somewhere in our body-sacks, that we are frolicking in the presence of a wisdom so right, so amazing, so majestic that we can’t help but respond with joy?

Today, a little of that joy sprayed my heart, like the refreshing salty sprinkles on my face when I get one of those awe-inspiring days at a beach.  I stood at the expanse of Provebs 8 – heart hungry for some refreshment.  Longing eyes, mesmerized, drank in the promise of the mighty ocean- forming goodness of wisdom:

This is the wisdom with which He formed the world. There is nothing crooked or perverted in it.

It produces the right things.

It is noble.  It is true.

It instructs.

It dwells with prudence (discretion – subtlety.)

It finds the right plan and the right device, every time.

It is with wisdom that He set for the sea its boundary, that the water should not transgress His command.

Counsel (prudence) belongs to this wisdom.

She is knowledge, and meaning.  She has strength (victory, mastery, might, power.)

She is a friend to those who befriend her.

Those that seek her at the beginning of their endeavors and days will find her.

Plenty, with honor, are with her – not only “enough” – but quality in the “enough.”  And there is rightness in it.

Her reward is better (bountiful, to put-at-ease) than gold, and her increase than excellent silver.

She leads life’s travelers in the manner that goes right through the track that adds up in justice, that she may cause her student to inherit quality in the end.

Happy is the person who hears (with understanding), and is on the lookout – continually and in each day, at where wisdom can be found.

For those who find this wisdom find strength of life, and obtain (draw out) God’s delight.

When I ask for wisdom, for myself and others – when I can’t find enough words, as a man can’t find enough words to describe the ocean – Proverbs 8 will speak for me.

Wisdom causing some wonder

May you enjoy all that wisdom is!

Miss MightyMouse, pre-Monkey Bars, taking on her brother

Recently, Hallie, the little girl with sparkling ocean eyes and curly blond hair, was chatting me up about her passion for the Monkeybars at her school.  This is a fierce love, this thing between Hallie and the metal challenge of her life.

As an infant, Hallie was challenged by biological issues.  Her heart’s pipes were too small.  The tiny little girl had to struggle a bit to catch up in development.  Well, fight, actually.  And she did.  On the Monkeybars.  For reasons beyond my understanding, our MightyMouse set her heart on mastering what must have been, to her, something akin to San Fransisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

She would come to our house, hair flying, eyes dancing, words flowing:  “I beat Sarah on the MonkeyBars today.  I stayed on longer. Than Sarah.  And Sarah’s really good.  But I still didn’t beat Mark.  Darn it.”

Week by week, Hallie kept at it.  We watched her soft little triceps grow firmer.  We saw her pinkish skin tan from all that time in the sun.  The blisters on her fingers turned to hard callouses.

Today, we are grandparents to one tough little MonkeyBar climber.  She rocks.  She can take on Sarah, and Mark, and beat them across the distance right pronto.

Her arms seem to contain the metal that rubbed off from all those MonkeyBar journeys.  She is one firm fighter.

The MonkeyBar master poured out more of her thoughts:  ”I wasted so much MonkeyBar time in 1st grade.  I could have spent that whole year working on it.  But I didn’t.  I was distracted with other stuff.  But now, every recess and every lunch time is MonkeyBar time.  And I’m really good at it now.  I am teaching a new girl.  She’s just a beginner.  I really like it.”

And I thought to myself, how much “MonkeyBar time” have I wasted?  Do we all waste?

I looked at that strong little girl.  The one who had trouble running across the playground when she first started school.  The one who determined to tackle the MonkeyBars even though she had no muscle to hold her up there for a few seconds, let alone take her the distance from bar to bar.

Thanks, Miss MonkeyBar MightyMouse.  You convict your grammy.  Bit by bit.  Determination.  Perseverance.  And no wasting any MonkeyBar time.

Curiosity ignites curiosity

One of the halllmarks of influencers is that they are curious.  In fact, great influencers tend to remain greatly curious.  Leaders are eager to learn or know. They are inquisitive.  And often, it is their inquisitiveness…their curiosity…that makes them the people others want to follow.  To see another’s kite flying up there in that wild blue sky inspires beginners to give it a try.  Curiosity ignites curiosity.

Inquisitive about what?

Wisdom has something to chime in, here.  There are curiousity arenas that can damage your life.  There is a video circulating out there that involves a curious little boy, a brick, and how that brick interacts with gravity.  The little boy fared badly in the exploration of that particular curiosity, as he was standing directly under the brick when gravity had its say.  No, effective leaders don’t explore dangerous, useless curiosities.  They explore that “something” that is interesting to them because they are compelled to improve life somehow.

What are you curious about?

Life is a gift – a precious, holy gift.  What we do with it counts for all eternity. Life can seem a blank, white, huge canvas planted before our googly eyes:  “how  do I BEGIN to form order and meaning in this blank space?” Might our curiosities be a tool – one of the brushes – we use to form beauty, meaning, purpose, productivity, blessing, and improvement on life’s timeline – for the number of days allotted to each of us, and as a gift to those who come after us? Might something that arouses curiosity in you be a bread crumb left by God’s hand along your life’s trail to guide you to your purpose?I’m so glad the Wright brothers were curious about flight.  And that my mom was curious about what the recipe she discovered for chicken and dumplings might taste like.  And that Steve Jobs was curious about how personal technology might be improved.  With each discovery…each curiosity pursued, developed, and executed…if chosen well… someone else benefits. We are each a leader, to someone.  The number of “someones” doesn’t really matter.  How we influence matters.  And we’ll never influence well if we don’t care to find out how to make something better for someone, somehow. Chicken dumpling soup won’t change the world, but it might ignite a passion for good cookin’ in someone, which leads to all kinds of possibilities to help others.

Curiosity is fire to life.

Have you ever been forced to sit next to someone at a gathering who had no curiosity about anything?  It makes for a boring  conversation. And it makes for a boring life. How much more encouraging to spend time with a person with a “fiery spirit.”  A spirit that is churning with ideas, projects, discoveries, possibilities and  healthy passions that are motivated to make something better is so encouraging to the people exposed to it. But what if you have no such fire?  May we suggest a few resources to get you started?

1.  Start with One Thing

A rose from the One Thing Rose Tree

Even a small flame warms the air directly around it.  For years, one of us wanted a rose garden.  Time and resource never allowed this to happen.  One day, we stumbled upon the One Thing concept: start with one small step, and keep doing the next right thing.  Within a week, one rose tree was planted.  We have tended it and marveled in what it produces each spring. We never planted more because we learned that just that one rose-wonderfullness was enough.

It wasn’t a rose garden we wanted, after all.  It was the joy of reaping a harvest of perfect roses from that one tree we can manage given the confines of our life.  Producing great roses requires a lot of work – and we choose to use our time and resources in ways we value more.  But, we can cultivate one – and we reap from that one.  And it is enough.

Perhaps you will find, once you start down curiosity’s path, that one thing remains one thing and you are satisfied.  But, you may find that one thing leads to the next thing, and eventually, you will have changed lives.

2.  Open your eyes. 

Go on a hunt for where your curiosity is peaked.  Many people don’t know what interests them until they stumble upon it.  Look at some magazines.  Talk to someone you find interesting.  Make a note in a journal the next time you overhear something in a conversation that peaks your curiosity.  Read some blogs – and make a list of ideas you find that are worthy of further investigation. Join Pinterest, an online community of people sharing photos of their interests.  The possibilities suggested by Pinterest people are endless.

3.  Turn off the T.V., and get off the couch

Go outside.  Take a walk.  Studies show that we do best when we get access to God’s creation.  The Creator knows how to get your creativity going.  He put you here for a purpose, and planted in your spirit those “curiosities” that are unique for you to pursue and express.  He wants to use you to bless and help someone else.  Let Him speak to you out there in His backyard.  Go for a nice walk with the One who knows you best, then come and jot down the inklings that He whispers to you.

Start somewhere. Respond with action.  Those who obey best receive His help most.

4.  Join a Mastermind group 

A Mastermind group is a group of people who gather together, regularly, to pursue their curiosities.  Mastermind groups form around such topics as:  writing, business, health, etc.  This writer couldn’t find one specific to my interests – so I created one.  I call it “Dream Buddies” and we  meet to encourage, inspire, resource, connect, and shake each other up in order to pursue those things God has put in our hearts that we know will make us better leaders – more helpful to others, more responsible to fulfill the “dreams” God put in our hearts.

5.  Take notes on yourself

In your daily life, is there something that nudged your curiosity?  Write it down, before you forget.  Then, at first opportunity, take the next one step.

6.  Use the library

You can research anything at the library.  If you want to grow a great rose tree, or make a birthday cake for a co-worker that rocks – your library is your curiosity buddy.  Of course there’s Google and Ping, and Chrome too – but for in depth research, with lots of
pictures and something to hold in your hand as you discover and create – you can’t beat the library.

7.  Take note of what bothers you.

What wrong do you want to right?  Who is doing a work out that in something you really, really believe matters. Begin the steps to get involved.

Sometimes, that blank, white canvas is intimidating.  A little brush called curiosity can start a fire that lights your way toward creating a “Master’s Piece.”

We’re curious about what your curiosity is creating out there!  If you care to let us know – you might light a fire in someone else who needs a little nudge down curiosity’s path.

Happy journeying! May all your curiosities be governed by wisdom.

Here’s how it happened.

 Christmas is upon us.  Each year Christmas comes packaged with so many competing issues around it that it takes me a while to sort it all out and get down to the simple, stark one thing my heart is searching for.  Amidst all the music, shopping, gift wrapping, pressure joy, baking, cooking, planning, attending, sorting, decorating and just plain hard thinking about everything I want to do, I want to find…satisfaction.

Yes, that is it.  That is the right word.  That is what Wisdom told me.  I want to be satisfied.

Why do we do all this “stuff” for Christmas?  We want the satisfaction that we have loved well.  That we got it right.  That we offered something of our lives, of our hands, of our hearts that is worthy of the unspeakable Sacrifice that started it all.

We watch our children’s faces, no matter their age, to gauge if we got it right.  If we did, our hearts glow with satisfaction.  We listen to the murmers of friends and families gathered around our dining tables to glean levels of delight in consuming the food we planned, shopped for, prepared, and presented.  Do they like it?  Really?  A lot?  If they do – we are satisfied.

Do the eyes of a precious granchild light up when she walks into  a freshly scrubbed house filled with cinnamon scent and twinkling lights?

Satisfied.

And when we fall into bed after the Big Day is done, don’t we whisper this question, deep in our hearts?  “Father, did I satisfy You?

Did I serve enough, work hard enough, sacrifice enough, listen well enough to really do this right?   Did I look a little like You, today?  In my humble attempts to love, did I echo Heaven’s Gift?  Did I honor You today?”

Father, are you happy with me?

Are you satisfied?”

Ah, here is the wonder of Christmas.  We can trust that His delighted answer is “YES, child.  I am satisfied with you.”

He is.  O Wonder.  He is.  Not because I “got it right.”  But because He got it right.  He made it right between me and Him – in Jesus.  Because I believe on the One He sent to save us from our sin.  Because in  the deepest spot in my  heart I treasure heaven’s Treasure, God is satisfied with me.  When He is satisfied with me, I am truly satisfied.  There is no greater joy to any child than to know the presence of their parent, in intimacy, communion, and in perfect mutual satisfaction.

This is my one thing this Christmas Season 2011 – to know and receive the satisfaction of my Father, and to abide in it.   This is my great hunger – and He satisfies it like no other gift can.

Christmas is remembering on Whom we have believed.  And that is where we drink deeply and are satified.   Joy.

Psalm 36:6-9  Your judgments are a great deep, O Lord. You preserve man and beast.  How precious is your lovingkindess, O God!  Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.  They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, and You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures.  For with You is the fountain of life, in Your light we see light.

Drink deeply my friends and be satisfied as you work hard getting ready for Christmas.

In honor of Andy Rooney’s recent exit from this world, here is a post that contains several of his wise observations during his sojourn here.  Mr. Rooney had a beautiful   perspective on life, I believe. 

I’ve learned…. That the best
classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.

I’ve
learned…. That when you’re in
love, it shows.

I’ve
learned…. That just one person
saying to me, “You’ve made my day!” makes my
day.

I’ve
learned…. That having a child
fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the
world.

I’ve
learned…. That being kind is
more important than being right.

I’ve
learned…. That you should
never say no to a gift from a child.

I’ve
learned…. That I can always
pray for someone when I don’t have the strength to help him in some other way.

I’ve
learned…. That no matter how
serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.

I’ve
learned…. That sometimes all a
person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.

I’ve
learned…. That simple walks
with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders
for me as an adult.

I’ve
learned…. That life is like a
roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it
goes.

I’ve
learned…. That we should be
glad God doesn’t give us everything we ask
for.

I’ve
learned…. That money doesn’t
buy class.

I’ve
learned…. That it’s those
small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.

I’ve
learned…. That under
everyone’s hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and
loved.

I’ve
learned…. That to ignore the
facts does not change the facts.

I ‘ve
learned…. That when you plan
to get even with someone, you are only letting that person continue to hurt
you.

I’ve
learned…. That love, not time,
heals all wounds.

I’ve
learned…. That the easiest way
for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I
am.

I’ve
learned…. That everyone you
meet deserves to be greeted with a smile.

I’ve
learned…. That no one is
perfect until you fall in love with them.

I’ve
learned… That life is tough,
but I’m tougher.

I’ve
learned…. That opportunities
are never lost; someone will take the ones you
miss.

I’ve
learned…. That when you harbor
bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.

I’ve
learned…. That I wish I could
have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.

I’ve
learned…. That one should keep
his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.

I’ve
learned….. That a smile is an
inexpensive way to improve your looks.

I’ve
learned….. That when your
newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you’re
hooked for life.

I’ve
learned…. That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.

I’ve
learned…. That the less time I
have to work with, the more things I get done.

Here’s to you, Mr. Rooney.  Thanks for making our own travels through this life a little more enjoyable. 

Fall at BTA

It’s fall, and that means the Pistachio trees at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum in Superior, Arizona are on fire.  With color, that is. That’s where we were this past Saturday, soaking in the cacti blooms, birds, flora, interesting scientist’s presentations, Australian walk-about paths, and, best of all, the hunt for the Coati. More on that later.

BTA

http://arboretum.ag.arizona.edu/events.html This little gem is hidden away in Superior. It’s about a 1 hour drive from Phoenix, and well worth the drive. If you are a birder – oh my – this is birding heaven. There are so many species that winter here. Hummingbirds are zipping everywhere, bird calls divert your attention constantly, and lots of oohs and ahhs are emitted from the mouths of rabid birders from all corners of the property. It’s fun to stop and chat with  the fascinating human visitors; you can run into botanists, scientists, professors, teachers, birders, photographers, gardeners, and “kids” of every age who wonder at the amazing creation on display at BTA. We enjoyed a presentation about bears presented by an Arizona bear specialist. Did you know Arizona has the largest bear-per-capita population in the United States?? I didn’t. Apparently, just 50 miles north of Phoenix, in central Arizona, a very large population of Black Bears happily exist. They love the oak acorns in that ecosystem. I will be freaking out delighting over that during our next Payson wilderness hike.  Although we absolutely enjoyed the birds who winter over at BTA, we were thrilled to find out that a Coati http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coati shuffles around the Garden grounds. Apparently, according to a Coati fan who showed us live video footage on his camera, the Coati really digs the pomegranate trees that are heavy with fruit right now. Once we saw that video footage, we tracked straight to the Herb Garden area where Mr. Coati was sighted, by many witnesses, throughout the day. We waited. And waited. And…waited. To no avail. Why? Because by the time we got there, so many people were tramping through and making so much noise that he just couldn’t trust his little Coati self to satisfy his pomegranate addiction.

Plug in, folks.

 As we waited (quietly, patiently, politely) near the P. trees, we noted lots and lots of people tramping right along the path, talking and joking about the Coati. Most folks yelled across the path: “hey, have you seen the Coati?” “No, not yet” we quietly answered. Hint, hint. One group of people blew our minds. Not only were they oblivious to the fact that their presence might scare off the Coati, they stopped exactly in front of the favored tree, and chatted for loooooong minutes about minuteau. The man then took out his CLIPPERS and starting clipping his nails (!) while his female partner talked about a new product she wanted to find. He smiled, nodded, and went on CLIPPING. She, apparently hopeless about receiving any verbal response from him, meandered on. He remained for minutes, clipping his nails. Clip. Clip. Clip. Finally, he brushed his DNA (very helpful to attract rare Coatis) off on the dirt beneath the P. tree, and lumbered on down the trail. Geez. We never saw the live Coati.

Thanks Mr. Nail Clipper.

 It’s wise to plug-in to the potential wonder around you. Or at least, if you don’t care personally, stay away from areas where others are trying to do just that.

 Wonder, a Cat, and a Queen

 As we watched Mr. Nail Clipper move on along, my husband, Bruce, commented about a poem he remembered from his childhood. It’s from Songs from the Nursery, printed in London in 1805, and remains a classic rhyme shared with children to this day. It goes like this:

Bruce said:  “You know, you can be surrounded by majesty and miss it because you just can’t get past your own smallness.”  A cat can visit Queen Elizabeth in her golden, royal palace, and see nothing but the mouse under her throne.

Hmmm.  Likewise,  a man can vist a golden, majestic cathedral of nature and see nothing but the need to clip his nails.

Jaunty Cardinal

It's a Wonderful, Goal Filled Life

I’ve read so much about goal setting.  SMART goals:  Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely.  Short- term, mid-term, and long-term goals.  You can set goals for every area of your life:  physical, mental, spiritual, social, financial, personal growth, etc.  Writing down your goals, research proves, improves the odds of reaching your goals by an impressive percentage.

Motivation

But what so many goal speaking and seeking people don’t address is the fire within:  motivation.  Motivation is what keeps you going through dips, crashes, and rainy and hot days.  Motivation is why we love watching movies like Rocky and It’s a Wonderful Life.  They flood us with inspiration to keep doing the right thing, because see:  it pays off, in the end.  Motivation is what too often wanes before we get to goal achieved.

Motivation for Everyone

Some things motivate most everyone: health, wealth, security, connectedness, success, joy, adventure, curiosity, accomplishment, self-respect, admiration, purpose.  In the movie It’s a Wonderful Life George discovers that he is more successful than he realized because he is meaningfully connected to a lot of people through the impact his life and business has had on them.  That realization produces joy.  Rocky discovers financial security, self-respect, the admiration of peers and great accomplishment through extended self-discipline and great risk taking.  We all want a lot of the same things.  But not all of us believe that our efforts, over time, will really turn out like the adventures of Rocky and George.

Motivation  for You

You are here for a purpose.  It’s probably not to win a world-class boxing title, or to create a bank that funds a town’s population.  Sometimes our purpose can’t be condensed into a theme statement:  female child born in Holland just before WWII will write a diary and through it (posthumously) educate millions of school children regarding the horrors of the holocaust.  Anne Frank died before she ever understood the mark she would leave on history.  Sometimes our purpose is not evident until factors outside of our control form the outlines for us so that our character can fill in the details.  Winston Churchill was thus revealed.  But, is there a way to embrace motivation and the reality that there is a lot that is out of our control in truly reaching our goals?  Is there a way to get and stay motivated through what life throws at us?  How do we keep going towards a goal when health, relationships, the economy, and even the world itself don’t cooperate with us?

Motivation Resource

Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch woman who survived a concentration camp offers wisdom on maintaining motivation through the worst set-backs:  “It is not my ability, but my response to God’s ability, that counts.”  Corrie placed her goal achievement not on something she could accomplish, but on something that God wanted to accomplish in and through her.  Corrie wanted to survive the deaths of her family members in the concentration camp, but even more, she wanted to accomplish the forgiving of those who killed them.  She couldn’t do it –not with the weight of history pressing against her.  Not when that history included Hitler, torture, starvation, and murder.  She could only do it through responding to God’s daily offer of power to set her heart aright–to find the motivation–the fire within.  Pleasing Him became her only motivation.  And for those of you that saw Corrie, or read about her in The Hiding Place  you know that she lived out her life as one of the most joy filled women in history. 

Goal Wisdom

Whatever our personal goals, we are all headed to the same place: the end of our lives.  We need motivation fire to keep us running in the lanes that lead to our own finish lines.  What is your finish line?  How will you stay motivated?  Here are few things to ask yourself every now and then:

1. How do  you want your grandchildren (or whatever family members will survive you) to consider you in their hearts?
2. What model for life do you want to leave behind for those who watch your life?
3. What is the “lab” of your life teaching us?
4. Is what you’re racing toward going to matter after you’re gone?
5. How much joy does your goal achievement bring you?  Bring others?
6. What motivates you?  Whatever it is, is it enough to keep your eye on the prize?

Whatever your goals, and whatever your motivation (or the lack thereof), you are teaching us all something.  That in itself it motivation for the rest of us!  Press on.

There’s a whole lot of information out there.  So much knowledge.  A lot of it is interesting, but useless.   Did you know, for example, that crocodile sizes are influenced by location?  If a croc is living in a swimming hole filled with fish and other protein morsels, it will grow into the behemoth of our nightmares.  But if  the croc’s watery home is protein challenged it will remain a little bitty reptile for all of its life.  I never knew that.  Not until I watched Nature on PBS last night.  Useless information.  But interesting.

Useless, unless I find myself stranded in the Outback of Australia and I’m really thirsty.  Thanks to PBS Nature, I’ll be searching for small, isolated water sources.  I’ll avoid rushing streams near the mouths of rivers.  That would be wise.  Wisdom, according to the Cambridge dictionary, is the “ability to use your knowledge and experience to make good decisions and judgments.”

Searching for Wisdom 

Most of us, whether we know it or not, or recognize it or not, are searching for wisdom.  We want to know what works.  We want to know where to find the best deals, how to make something work, how to solve our dilemmas, how to create something.  We need to know stuff.  We need to make good decisions and judgments.  We’re all trying to make life work to our advantage.

Where do you go to make life work for you?

Wisdom matters.  Life works better when you have it.  Sometimes, like when you’re stranded in the Outback, wisdom saves your life.

Wisdom

Ever wondered why we say a person is as “wise as an owl?”  Frankly, owls are untrainable.  But they are “wise” in the sense that their eyes are so big (huge in proportion to the size of their bodies) that their brains are processing a lot of optical input information when they are hunting.  Their kill rate is significantly higher than other predatory birds.  They are very, very effective at catching dinner – at making life work.  Owls are geniuses at observing.

Wisdom requires a lot of observing as well.  And processing.  And gathering  enough input before we launch  to give the best possibility of success.

So, I’m on a wisdom hunt.  I’m passionate about wisdom.  I want to live in Wisdom Town.