The Essence of Life

I've always been interested in things that lie beyond the horizon.
When we think about what we know or what we think we know in regards
to our life experiences it's easy to say in reference to that
collection that because there are "X" amount of years involved in
experience that we are wise. But most of the time the numbers boast
don't hold and weight when it comes to overall wisdom. I am a walking
contradiction to the notion that age make one wise.

Wisdom is not a mass mental library of experiences. Wisdom is
knowledge applied to current life experiences. Be they our own or
others who listen to our stories. Wisdom does not come unless
knowledge is applied and knowledge does not come unless learning is a
primary factor of life. It is because I live that I learn. It is
because I learn that I gain knowledge. It is because I apply that
knowledge to living that I am seen as being wise. And the only lesson
that comes with wisdom is the urge to learn more while continuing to
live. In a little time application becomes a reflex.

What is life but a series of experiences?
Those experiences and our interpretations of them are part of who we
are and who we are to become. How we talk, act, react, think, and
even feel about one topic or another is based on the references of
our own library of experiences.

The mystery of human life comes when we experience things that are
not so easy to interpret according to what we have been programed
into thinking by outside influences. Some of what we know and how we
live are lives was learned not from our own collection of experiences
but from someone else's. We reference their lives when we don't have
the personal experience in our own. .

It's easy to say that we have lived through a lot of things and that
we gained wisdom in the living. What is not so easy to point out to
people is that no matter how much you lived through in your own
little world the rest of the world is a much bigger place with lesson
and trials that make your little world seem small and colorless.

These days we have the grand teacher and doorway to the world called
the "Internet"!
We now have this amazing tool where the far side of the world is only
a click away.
I've used that tool for more than a few years now and the one thing
that it has gifted me on my journey is the hunger and longing to keep
exploring beyond the boundaries of my own little world.

There are so many people, places, things, and histories to explore.
And in seeing it you really wonder why most people never leave their
own back yards aside from the fact that if the remain there in that
same little corner they're safe. As much as we love mystery we are
terrified of exploring the bigger ones. The idea of packing up and
going over "there" just for shits and giggles is not really an option
for a lot of people. They wont even consider it. Nope! Too dangerous!
They like things that they know and can control. Take that away and
they are like fish out of water.

I use to have an extremely uncontrollable urge of wonder lust. Which
is all good in it's own way but every time I wondered off to go see
places I never really made it beyond my own little world. Now I have
been from one end of this country to the other and I will still say
that I never made it out of my world. And the reason I ill say that
is because of the American culture. It's the same old same old no
matter where you go. America is just America. The world is a lot
bigger.

So in researching paganism I found that I didn't have a lot of places
in the States to actually find it. This country is only 200 years
old. Not exactly "pagan" times. We do so love the watered down
recreations though.

When I think of the term "pagan" in location I see Rome, Greece,
Ireland, Scotland, Germany, even Egypt from time to time. Not a lot
of red, white, and blue in the old pagan landscapes.

One of my first "worldly" experiences came from talking with
Silver_Soul_Song way down in Australia. Now that is a bit of culture!
We have had some doosy convos over the last year and a half and I
took the time to learn about her world and some of her culture that I
found is quite a bit different than my own. Never thought about
traveling down there until she offered me cookies. Then it was a
rather hard turn down. And Silver, whom I love bunches, was the first
person outside of the States to send me something in standard mail. A
little pieces of Australia on CD and a little cultural music.

What kicked my cultural wonder lust into overdrive was my time with
Afsoon. And with her culture shock and learning was a must less my
brain starve and my imagination keep gifting off let downs. In my
talks with her and reading about her countries history and culture I
really ended up with the perspective that when it comes to
worldliness I don't know crap! Some of what I had to learn to accept
about her world was an extremely hard struggle simply because my
point of view did not include that part of the world horizon. I found
a deep desire to L E A R N what was beyond my world and my point of
view. Another soul who had the same desire and followed it was Paulo
Coelho who wrote "The Warrior of Light" and other books from his
world travels and what he experienced that broaden his horizons. They
say that "culture is good for the soul" and that man has one healthy
soul. And it is in people like him that I see proof of true wisdom.
Afsoon introduced me to his works too.

Gifts from beyond my world that actually put pressure on my
boundaries and pushed them back. And it's mainly because of these two
women that my wonder lust doesn't just include my own backyard. The
greatest gift that I have received from both of them is that the
world is bigger and many things are different out there. You don't
have to settle for the same old cut and dried safe world that you
were brought up in or stick to the same culture. Before them, I had
no clue what a "cuppa" was or what "te iubesc" meant. And I learned
that I don't know half of what I know and what I do know doesn't even
scratch the surface of what is out there.

It's things like this that give me reference to just how small my own
life has been and just how big it could be. Two wonderful people from
beyond my world that colored my life so much and changed me in ways
that I could never imagine. And there was just two of them!

I love talking to people in the furthest corners of the world. People
from different cultures who see and live in a world so differently
than my own that conversations with them never grow old or dull. I
love reading about different places and learning all I can from them.
My brain starves for the information. So I learn what a "cuppa" is
and every single time I poor a cup of coffee I think about it. And
suddenly a simple cup of coffee is not so simple anymore. And the
words "te iubesc" echos like a whisper in the background of my
favorite songs.

I gather these leaves from all over the world to color my own. In
doing so I find that I live a richer and fuller life where knowledge
has more opportunity to be applied. Thus, the act of sipping a cup of
coffee, listening to a nice song, or just looking off to the horizon
transforms from everyday living to the pondering practices of a wise
man.

Angel Snowden -2006