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Proverbial Thursday – Global Wisdoms

Forestwood

I find there is profound wisdom in the proverbs, sayings and quotes of days past, and I marvel at the way these few words are so succinct in communicating messages to the reader. Mostly anonymous, they come to us from past generations and from across cultures. They speak of the experiences of lives lived and lessons learned. Quotes, like proverbs, make us think more deeply about something.

Each Thursday, I post a Proverb or Saying and a Quote that I find thought-provoking. 

I hope you find them thought-provoking too.

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Proverb:

 

Patience attracts happiness;

it brings near that which is far –

(Swahili proverb)

Source: Sufiso’s blog

 

Proverbs like this are often wise words from our ancestors, passed down from generation to generation. Best savoured a little a time. At times they sound trite, yet wisdom is surely found within their concise words.

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Quote:

Life is being on the wire. Everything else is just waiting –

(Karl Wallenda)

 

I was a bit mystified by this quote, until I learned that Wallenda was a high wire performance artist!

What is Karl really waiting for?

Is your life on living on a wire?  Unpredictable, insecure?

Do you have a similar quote that inspires you?

I would love to hear your thoughts and so invite you to join in the discussion.

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Proverbial Thursday gives us all Something to Ponder About

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Published by Forestwood

A philosophic Aussie writes here at StPA, one who will readily admit to loving Scandinavia. I'm interested in global politics and what drives us to be who we are. Scratch the surface and you'll find a practical Environmentalist with an egalitarian bent, trying to unleash a little creativity via the written word. Scandinavian culture, literature and traditions are close to my heart, even though I'm Australian. Travel and courteous discussions greatly broaden the mind, so I travel if I can and am always up for a vigorous, respectful discussion. I'm an avid reader, a writer and I enjoy photography and crafts, particularly traditional art forms. I hope you'll find 'Something to Ponder About,' in my WordPress Community.

21 thoughts on “Proverbial Thursday – Global Wisdoms”

  1. Very interesting proverbs! It’s why some people do dangerous things. At the brink of death they are fully alive. The rest is just mundane existence. It’s like driving the same route to work every day until it’s rote and you don’t know how you got there vs taking a new way and really paying attention to everything.

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    1. Thanks for your comment. I think you have nailed the meaning of the quote by Wallenda. He must have truly felt fully and viscerally alive when performing: tempting death and then cheating it balancing over a crevass with no net. It seems his whole family was involved in these activities. What an adrenaline rush! But in doing these death defying stunts, did he cause his remaining life to become boring and frustrating, do you think? It seems in contrast to the Swahili proverb which seems to advocate a measured, steadfast, albeit less stimulating path and suggestion of use of one’s imagination to bide the time. Or, perhaps I am reading too much into it? I feel my life has been more on the steadfast patient path, all along, apart from a few turbulent years of living on the edge, mainly during late adolescence. I don’t regret that. But what about you? Did you take one path in preference to another in life?

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      1. I agree with your assessment of the Swahili proverb. I’m not a life on the edge kind of person. As a Virgo and caregiver all my life, I am as practical and patient as they come. I don’t need excitement to feel alive. Just a garden and a good book plus family and friends. Life is good and enough.

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    2. We’re in Sweden, but on a ferry to Finland. Will have an 8-day self-drive jaunt there and then to the Baltic States for two weeks. Finishing off in Belgium and France. Home at the end of June.

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  4. The Swahili proverb reminds me of waiting. Sometimes it will be better to stand up and create opportunities for ourselves. But other times we have to deal with the challenges that life throws at us before going after what we want or the finer things in life. Maybe in a way this quote is telling us that the things around us right now are things that we should appreciate. At the end of the day, true happiness doesn’t lie in chasing and chasing and chasing but it lies in the moments and almost every single moment that comes by.
    Such an eye-opening fact that Karl Wallenda walks the tightrope! It gives such a different perspective to the quote…imagining him up high in the air balaning on a tightrop, something that requires him to go slow and focus on keeping his body a certain way – the world certainly must fall away from him when he attemps every walk like that.
    Metaphorically speaking, in life a lot of us can’t have everything all at once. The world doesn’t resolve around us unless we come from a wealthy and privileged family (and there’s so many ways to interpret wealthy and privileged…). We can’t have our cake and eat it all the time. Often we have to work to get where we are, keep doing what we do until that opportunity comes our way – because then not because we are ready (we may never be), but the heart within us will want to face it.
    Two beautiful quotes that go hand in hand this week so well. Maybe we can include them in the book 😀 Also love what you did to your blog look, and I LOVE that you put this above the comment box: ‘Everyone is important. What do you have to say?’ Great tagline.

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    1. Thank you for the nice comments on the new fonts and format on my blog. That is so encouraging, but the new format doesn’t seem to show on my phone’s format, of the wordpress site, and i am not sure why. The tagline : Everyone is important, has been there, on the blog, for some time, but evidently the format hid it somewhat. It is good to know that it is seen by everyone, now!!
      As for the proverbs, thanks always for a wonderful, conversational comment, Mabel. You really have a gift that makes me feel like we are sitting one to one chatting calmly with each other, over a cuppa! Not everyone has that gift in their writing!
      Very true that the Swahili proverb revolves around waiting, as patience and happiness are its intrinsic messages. Waiting gives more value to the goal, but patience makes the waiting worthwhile. We definitely can’t have everything at once and I do feel the proverb urges us to enjoy the journey, the time spent wasting and not squander it.
      And I so love your words – “keep doing what we are doing until that opportunity comes our way, because then, not because we are ready, as we may never be, but the HEART WITHIN US WILL WANT TO FACE IT.” The heart is what makes our essence, our whole, our being. Our mind might think logically and practically, but if the heart is not involved and supportive of the decision, it won’t happen or it may not work out. Even the word ‘wholeheartedly’ suggests how important the heart, (or emotions), are in determining whether we achieve our destination/goal/success/fulfillment/contentment.
      Great quotes for our book!

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      1. It takes a while to come to a format and design for our blog that we like. Really like what you did and I found your blog loaded faster last night on my blog 😀

        Thanks for the kind words, Amanda. Always lovely to chat and think about the word and take away something from each other.

        The mind and heart work together. Logic is certainly what the mind is about, but there is also a part of it that is creative (left vs right brain) – but ultimately I think both are still underpinned by logic and the mechanisms of nerves and the body.

        The heart is a powerful thing. We can’t help feel what we feel, and sometimes that has to do with memory and what we have experienced and what we want. Sometimes the more we wait for something, the stronger the heart will feel for it.

        Agreed that here are some great quotes for our book 😀

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      2. The heart can indeed be a powerful thing, at times overriding all sensible and rational thoughts! Why? Because of our previous experiences and the impressions and values of our past lives? Most definitely, I agree! This fact, however, leads me to think about judgmental people and comments. Do they in fact make disparaging comments because they have not experienced empathy or an open mind in the circles they move in? For instance, if you had only heard and seen an intolerant attitude to a certain individual group, from those around you, how could it be that you could develop a more tolerant perspective without prejudiced input? Could this intuitively develop on its own, in your mind, or would the first contact with tolerance have to come via media, a book, or another individual? If we had never experienced kindness or generosity, could we be anything more than hard, selfish and overly frugal? Furthermore, if this is true, can they really be blamed for their ignorance? I think this is why education is so very important, and a broad education at that, offering many different perspectives and opinions. The more experiences, the more enlightened, do you think?

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      3. I think it depends on our values on how we look at our experiences. A certain perspective we’ve always had may make us reflect on our experiences in a certain way. However, the more experiences one would think you’d be more receptive to a wider range of ideas. Very interesting questions posed.

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