Wisdom

 What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?

         Wisdom isn’t something that I feel I have.  One of the hardest parts of writing a sermon for me, for example, is coming up with something the least bit original to hand over to people who are listening. Stories I’ve got, biblical and theological points I’ve got, but my own wisdom to hand over to people I don’t have.  Luckily on most Sundays the scriptural message has wisdom I can use in place of my own.

            So I’m not sure I’ve made any wise decisions this year, though I’ve tried to make some important ones. I’ve stayed focused, for example, on trying to make decisions best I can using the principle of ahimsa (non-injury) as my first guide. 

I’m not very good at it yet—especially when it comes to immediate, personal, family-related situations—but I’ve begun to apply it on more general life choices.  I’m trying to consciously choose the products we use in our home—be it food, cleaning items, clothing, or gadgets—in a way that will do the least harm to the earth, animals, etc.  I’m working on keeping the little bit of land that I’m directly responsible for as healthy as possible by composting and putting more back into the soil than it had when I began to live on it.  And I’m trying to stay as awake as I can to political issues and ways in which practicing ahimsa impact on them.  Is living in this way wise?  The Jains, Hindus, Buddhists, Jesus, Gandhi and Martin Luther King Junior among others all seem to think so.  I can’t tell. I just know that it feels like it’s the right way to orient the decisions I’m making in this part of my life.