Wisdom comes when there is connection
One of our warmest guest addresses is that of Ryon Groenen in Mook. Pilgrims can spend the night there for a voluntary fee (‘donativo’).
Ryon usually picks up pilgrims at the bench on the Mookerschans: a hilly piece of heath bordered by trees. From the bench to her house it is a few hundred meters. The guestbook is full of exclamation marks and warm words for her hospitality and openness. Funny: a pilgrim thanks her for the tip on how to knit a tie without it curling…
For me, wisdom is not of the mind, but of the feeling. As I have experienced from the old people I cared for for twenty years. I remember a woman who saw me lugging around and suddenly said to me: “you’re busy all the time girl, come here for a while, just sit down.”
From that peace and deepening, wisdom arises. Wisdom and depth are therefore interrelated. For deepening, you need the other. To get reflection, to be seen and heard and to exchange experiences. This exchange can be very practical: how to walk up a mountain without getting exhausted, for example. But also how to set your boundaries in a conversation without offending the other person.
I often experience deepening when I’m alone. I can sit for hours on the bench of the Mookerschans to look at the trees, especially in autumn, all those colors… I fall silent in such a zen-like way… I calm down when I sit at my spinning wheel on the couch at home and feel the yarn pass through my hands. I feel like I’m totally there. When I think about the people in my life at such a moment, I feel that they are also allowed to be there. That the tree outside is allowed to be there. Yes, letting each other be there – I experience that feeling as wisdom.
Of course, everyone has their own wisdom. For me, life ‘makes sense’ when it’s simple. Not an unnecessarily expensive sofa if you can be satisfied with one from the thrift store for ten years. But people live across from me in a very bling bling, everything new every year. Still, we sometimes have nice contact on the street and there is connection. That is also wisdom, from both sides.
Wisdom arises where there is a connection with yourself or with the other. If you are seen, heard and experienced and want the other person to do the same. Then you can do what’s right.
Do you live near the route and are you interested in becoming a guest address? Have a look here.
“Especially when I’m walking, time stands still and I feel free, with my own thoughts. There is time for that, which gives you insights into what is happening around you and what it does to yourself.” Ryon Greens.
