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About This Author
My name is Joy, and I love to write.
Why poetry, here? Because poetry uplifts its writer, and if she is lucky enough, her readers, too. Around us, so many objects abound to write about. Once a poet starts with a smallest, most trivial object, he shall discover that his pen will spill out what is most delicate or most majestic hidden inside him. Since the classics sometimes dealt with lofty subjects with a lofty language, a person with poetry in his soul may incline to emulate that. That is understandable. Poetry does that to a person: it enlarges the soul and gives it wings. Yet, to really soar, a poet needs to take off from the ground.
 
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Daily Cascade
Since my old blog "Everyday Canvas "  became overfilled, here's a new one. This new blog item will continue answering prompts, the same as the old one.
Cool water cascading to low ground
To spread good will and hope all around.
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Prompt: Learning Wisdom
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."
Confucius
What do you think of this quote and what is your method of learning wisdom?
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I am sure what wisdom was in Confucius's era has evolved greatly through time. So, I think, today, there's a lot more to it than what Confucius is offering us.
The way I look at it, the big question is: What is wisdom?
Wisdom isn't really knowledge or intelligence alone. Wisdom, I think, is the ability to see things clearly and in their entirety, if possible. Then and only then, we can make good judgments about life and the immediate question at hand. Wisdom, therefore, is the blend of experience, knowledge, and deep understanding, fortified by empathy, humility, and perspective.
So, for me, seeing the big picture, knowing what matters and what doesn't, understanding people's weaknesses and motivations including my own, acting to do the most good and the least harm, accepting uncertainty and the unusual, all have to do with wisdom in our time.
Also, wisdom doesn't happen at the click of a moment. It is usually cultivated over time. And in addition to Confucius's advice, being open to changing one's mind and staying away from my own motives, fears, and patterns does help. In other words, I as well as others need to see ourselves with honesty, which is the most difficult thing to do. Then, staying curious, educating ourselves widely does help, too.
After all that, still sticking to uncertainty is the wise way to be. By that I mean we should be open to changing our minds if things do not work out well with what we considered wise in the first place. This is because true wisdom is in acknowledging that we cannot know everything and we all are fallible from time to time, no matter how hard we try.
As my last thought on the subject, wisdom is elusive, and I do not have a clue, really, how it can be learned in its entirety, if it can be learned at all. For some, experience and learning from mistakes and reading a lot and studying do help. As for me, even after I've lived so many years, acting with wisdom, more or less, escapes me, at times or maybe just about always. 
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