“Rethinking” Wisdom – What a Concept!

 ”Rethinking” Wisdom – What a Concept!

I’m adding an ‘R’ of my own – “Rethinking” – after my post of May 20th, “The Moods of Memoir.” In that post, I referenced Faith Popcorn’s 4 Rs as her forecast for 2009. Those trends that people are beginning to assume are as follows:

• “Reclaiming” – We are reclaiming our lives.
• “Retrenching” – We are pulling together and retrenching with “cuddles & hugs.”
• “Resetting” – We are resetting our priorities about what is really important to us – that being intimate family relationships.
• “Reinventing” – We are reinventing who we are and how we want to be in today’s world.

There is evidence all around us that proves Popcorn is correct in her assumptions; we are, indeed, pulling together to look closely at how important our family relationships and value systems are to each of us. I believe “Rethinking” is the granddaddy of them all – or is that grandmommy of them all? After all, it takes “Rethinking” to make “Reclaiming”, “Retrenching”, “Resetting”, and “Reinventing” take place.

“Rethinking” how we view ourselves and our families and realizing how we want to nurture is becoming more and more important to us in an increasingly unstable as society. And, in this context, we ask whether or not there is wisdom in the changes we may make or are we considering change for the sake of change with no tested forethought to the result or consequences? We are now questioning the result of change and measuring its probable outcome against our deepest values and beliefs within the family and even in culture in general. Do we like what we see?

My work as The Story Woman^TM has everything to do with “Rethinking” our relationships with our mothers and the importance of female wisdom as daughters and sons are asked to capture the character of their mothers in short memoir. When folks begin this journey to discover her spirit – who she is at her core, they get to “Rethink” the wisdom of their mothers’ actions as well as their own perceptions. The result often provides a fresh view of the situation.

A woman recently added this note when she sent her bio-vignette to me, “I found after writing this story of my mother that my perceptions didn’t change about her, my perceptions about myself changed when I spent more time actually looking at her rather than focusing on myself. Quite a revelation!”

On the other hand, “Rethinking” can reinforce our previous perceptions of ourselves and our loved ones. The wisdom gleaned from looking closely at their character and spirit can be the impetus to (dare I note another ‘Re’?) “Retravel” the age old path in honor of those who walked before us as the nurturers of humanity and the weavers of our destiny.

To paraphrase by friend Marvin’s comments – it is good to see women “Rethinking” and acknowledging the nurturing side of their nature and birthright now that women have gained hard-won choices. There is no reason why an intelligent goal-oriented woman can’t satisfy a career desire from within the structure of a strong family that she holds together with her strength, natural nurturing abilities, and love.

The Story Woman^TM asks sons & daughters to write bio-vignettes ”Rethinking” the ancient wisdom of mothers the world over.

Links to Marvin D Wilson and Faith Popcorn