The wisdom of decision 

I have known this proverb for a long time, and it always has excited me, while remaining a mystery, including giving me a headache sometimes! Sinéad reminded me again. She put a newspaper clipping in front of me because she had stumbled across this text in various media over the last few days. A quotation from the Book of Prayers and Services for the US Armed Forces during the Second World War. The Irish Times writes in its Church Notes section, "that it speaks well to our fears in these troubling and challenging times":

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
the wisdom to know the difference.

Words easily said. Philosophy! If I think about it carefully, I am at a complete loss. (wie ein Esel am Berg/standing like a donkey on a mountain). Yes, how do I distinguish between what I can change and what I can not? There is probably only one way: by doing it. Just try it. If it works, then yes, and otherwise, no. But even if it does work, you are still not sure whether you have really made a change, or whether you have just stirred up some shit without really changing anything?

Is this a Heiku, Sinéad?

Journey to Guatemala

Doors close
Nothing seems to work, delayed, charged, unclear
I am inspired

Doors open
Conversations with those important to me
Everything works, especially the plans

Very nervous
Everything seems to work, like a plan
Wondering what's coming next

Only wisdom remains! The wisdom of just do it, or doing nothing? A question of birth and character? I do not know. In my case it is my dexterous hands, my trustworthy feet, a greedy mouth, the nose rather big and old fashioned, and a rather impaired hearing. The wind blows and guides me. Not to forget my wild emotions and thoughts that dance along with it. One after the other, and at the same time.

We talked about communism, about Cuba, about the collective ideas of many a Jew, on his way to the promised land in the Great War of last century, a few years before my birth. In short: about the wild dance of liberalism and communism. Of faith and secularism. Skyscrapers and community gardens. "Active" responsibility and "passive" fatalism. The free individual and its borders - but rather than bounderies, a shared mystery. How does all this go together? Wisdom?

Wisdom is silent...

...to immediately give space to my restless hands breaking the silence again. The one that cannot be broken.

Sinéad just told me -while having our coffee, cigarrette and inspiring morning chat- this "conundrum", the one her father once told. I wrote it down according to her dictation:

If it takes a man a week to walk a fortnight, how many apples in a barrel of grapes?

I laughed, and objected, as usual:

Yes, but what about the one who planted apples and would like to take them to the woman or man?

Her father was a passionate gardener, he planted tasty Brussel sprouts in their front garden, while others carefully tended their "English lawn".

PS: What's the cows wisdom to differenciate its actions and deciding on the herbs and grass it eats? It does have more then one stomach to digest, and produce its milk.

PS2: This text is 100% Sinéads writing, at least completly born from her inspiration. I simply digested. Thank you, Sinéad!

Song: the same as in my previous text "Am I right here?", but this time in its original version, sung and performed by Gloria Estefan, thank you Vivi! "Mi Tierra" (Original version)

Alternative song, due to complexity of Wisdom: The daughter of Astrid from Xela shared it with me this morning, thank you Elizabeth! "Genesis - La Lamia", (Version with lyrics)