For me, the notion of wisdom is learning each day that I know next to nothing, and I have no idea what other people ought to do with their lives.  My good friend and spiritual teacher Mary Muncil e-mailed me the other morning and said she had an idea about sponsoring a contest on her website giving away some of the skin balm potion she makes. Was it a good idea, she asked?

I thought about it and didn’t really like the idea. To me, contests seemed gimmicky, and I couldn’t quite imagine doing one for my blog or books. I e-mailed her and said I wasn’t sure about it, but Mary is a lot like me, and I saw that the contest was already up on her website. I felt a  flash of irritation. Why had she asked me if she didn’t even want to wait for opinion? But the truth is, she didn’t need to ask me and I really had no idea what might work for her.

Of course, it was a huge success. People loved it and she sold a ton of skil balm before the days’ end. The contest was easy, a lot of fun, and the growing numbers of people on her excellent blog had a blast.

I saw Mary the next morning and we laughed about it. You know, Mary, I said, I am really learning that I have no idea about other people. I used to think I did, and spent a lot of time and energy worrying about what other people ought to. It was exhausting as well as fruitless.

I really know next to nothing, and that is the most liberating and wonderful feeling in the world.

I know, she said.

Here is a video of “Cows On The Move,” during an ice storm yesterday at Million Acres Farm in Salem, N.Y.