Weathered - Different Ways Of Knowing…
It is said that wisdom comes with age, and I certainly qualify for having aged.
Just like a giant granite boulder weathers through exposure to much “softer” elements, so does my perspective through continual exposure to experience and insight.
There are a few specific insights which have gained prominence over the recent decades, and I suspect it could be of value to you too…
The pursuit of knowledge and understanding could be a double-edged sword.
When I was younger and very goal oriented, my pervasive mentality was that of conquest…of knowing…of intellectual ownership. Scientific names and ecological processes, classification of everything into neat little boxes. Besides a curiosity to learn new things, this drive was however also borne from fear and a sense of inadequacy.
Let me explain.
As a nature guide, you are the one guests look to for answers. That’s what you are employed to do. The way to compensate for lack of experience…is through knowledge. The more stuff you know and can correctly identify, the stronger your sense of validation.
Spewing out the correct answers, becomes the barometer of your success as a guide.
This cerebral approach however eventually started weathering the childlike awe which was my original inspiration for becoming a guide…
I had a moment of standing-comprehension whilst training other guides, when noticing a visible “shutting-down” to observation as soon as I identified a tree or bird. It was as if they suddenly “conquered” the specific subject despite not paying any real attention to its attributes or character. As soon as something had a name or label and could be identified, it was as if eyes stopped “seeing” it for the wonder that it is.
The natural curiosity which should compel closer investigation and fierce attention evaporated as soon as a label was hung around its neck…with shock I realised that for some years, I had been the same.
In an attempt to revive my own spark, I refrained from handing out any names until the absolute final word…instead spending majority of my attention on “saying what I see”. Voicing (out loud) all the particular attributes as I see them and continuing to investigate until I can’t add anymore, prompted my eyes to rediscover the subtle and not-so-subtle nuances of whatever I was looking at.
Suddenly my sense of wonder and awe re-emerged from the fog…and along with it the realisation that names (knowledge) may explain the what, but does nothing to explain the WHO. That intimate relationship was only accessible through the eyes of a child..where labels are irrelevant to our appreciation of the inherent beauty recognised in all and sundry…
May you relinquish the “need to know” long enough to, even just briefly, relive that realm of absolute wonder and reverence borne from awe, instead of understanding.
Yours in grateful receiving