What is wisdom?

I had an interesting conversation with a colleague today about wisdom. She asked me about what my thoughts were on the subject as she was writing about for a paper for her Masters students to consider.

I admit that I had to think about it and it has been something that I have thought about over the years and consider it as a gift that is one accumulates over life lived that we pass on meaningfully to others.

I think of my parents and the gems that they have passed onto me over time from the advice that they often give and the insight that I have gained from our talks. Sometimes it's been passed on through mentors that I had as a teen and young woman mainly from male educators whom passed on gems as I journeyed through my education.

I think of it as gems passed on through time from the wise sayings and proverbs from ancestors such as whakatauki for Maori and alaga upu or muagagana in Samoan. These gems are like pearls that sometimes may not may a lot of sense at the time but when applied at the right time and moment can open or close doors to you.

Much like the proverb above which talks about knowledge speaking and Wisdom listening and I can vouch for that in being very powerful in that over the years I have found it more valuable to listen to what all have to say before contributing my part in knowing that we were given one mouth and two ears for a reason (that's a joke by the way :)

Suffice to say that the question caught me off guard in an unexpected but neat way of reminding me of the importance of our elder generations and to take the time to spend time with them to learn what we need to and then to pass it on...