To know you are “ignorant” is the beginning of wisdom.

 I was recently a passenger on a five-hour car trip listening to “The Mists of Avalon” on Audible and I heard that phrase.  Hmmm…I never thought about it like that before.  It’s kind of like any of the 12 step programs; admitting you have a problem is the first step to conquering your addiction.  But the irony is that most of suffer from this affliction. 

We blindly go through life racing from one milestone to the next completely ignorant of the lessons we should be learning along the way.  Some of us, in our ignorance, keep tripping over ourselves, self-sabotaging our potential achievements with blame and self-doubt.  Others are just so conditioned by their childhood experiences that they stay mired in the same self-defeating patterns of their parents. 

Truly, wisdom comes out of experience, but it is born out of the “realization” that you have come out on the other side of that dark place with knowledge and understanding so that you never wander into the darkness again.  And more importantly, you understand what behaviors and negativity led you down the crooked path.  There is no bliss or joy in ignorance, only the certainty that history will repeat itself.

One of my favorite authors and guru of all things Gnostic, Tau Malachi, said in a YouTube video, “In understanding we know how, and in wisdom we know when.”  Let us embrace our ignorance so we can live in the light of understanding. Let us give birth to our wisdom so we may mentor our younger generations out of the darkness of ignorance.

Blessings,
Susan