Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy

Welcome to Day 300 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

The Wisdom of Silence

Thank you for joining us for our 7 days a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 300 of our trek, and yesterday we compared the trails of inheritance versus legacy.  We discovered that although many people think of them as the same, there are distinctive and important differences between the two.

We have crossed over the 300-day milestone, and we are excited as we continue toward completing a full year of Wisdom-Trek.  Thank you so much for coming along with me each day as we explore and consume small “nuggets of wisdom.” These bits of wisdom help us to live a rich and satisfying life while creating a living legacy.

While some of our daily treks are multi-part series, you can join us at any time and start along with us from that point on. If you would like to listen to any of the past episodes, please go to Wisdom-Trek.com to listen to them and read the daily journal. You can also subscribe to Wisdom-Trek on iTunes, Spreaker, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and Google Play so each day’s trek will be downloaded to you automatically.

We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio. As we have been observing our pair of hawks, we have settled that they are Red Shouldered Hawks based on their coloring and calls. We do not believe that they have laid their eggs yet as both of them remain very active working on the nest, flying around and eating small rodents. We will keep you updated as we observe more.

It is great as I enjoy watching God’s creation and being able to see spring wake up, all while standing in silence at my computers and doing what I love, including creating these journals for our daily Wisdom-Trek. There is wisdom in being silent and observing.  This brings us to our trek today as we explore…

The Wisdom of Silence

Today let us discover the art of Learning to Talk Less and Say More.

You know who I really appreciate? Those people who aren’t uncomfortable with silence. Those people with whom you can sit at a table and have a delicious meal and not feel uncomfortable when none of you has anything to say. I love people who can communicate with one another not just with words but also with silence.

As we hike onward today, I will mix some quotes, proverbs, and some good practical “horse sense” about the treasure of silence. I am sure that you have experienced being with someone who just could not stand a moment of silence, so they filled every gap of silence with speaking even if it was not relevant. Some people are convinced that to be a good conversationalist that there has to be a verbal conversation going on.

Life is a series of balances. Extremes on either end of the spectrum are usually not prudent. As a Swedish Proverb says, “Fear less, hope more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Hate less, love more; And all good things are yours.”

I am sure all of us have done the same where we have been in a situation when we have talked too much or have said something that was either inappropriate or irrelevant. There are times we just talk and talk without actually saying anything. Maybe it’s because we want to feel that we’re heard and that people acknowledge our presence and existence. But, is that really the way to go about it? Wouldn’t it be wiser to talk less and say more while at the same time immersing ourselves in those moments of silence and allowing them to just be? Those individuals that habitually talk too much are usually a victim of a low self-image or a puffed up ego, which are two sides of the same coin.

Plato described it this way,