The Wisdom That Was There All Along

“Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water, but a man of understanding will draw it out.”—Proverbs 20:5 (NKJV)

From my first published book to my latest, each one belonged to a particular season of my life since my son's death.

It stirred up the writer in me. One book gave voice to the anguish of losing my son. Another documented my movement from grief toward gratitude. Another offered practical steps for healing from within.

Those books, and the others in between, are all connected. Every experience produced wisdom. Every difficult season left something behind.

Every time I survived what I thought might destroy me, I gained an understanding that could not have come from reading someone else’s story. I had lived it.

The wisdom was there all along, waiting for me to become still enough to recognize it.

That realization became the nucleus of Wisdom Speaks From Within: An Invitation to Pause and Reflect.

This book began with an invitation to listen more intently.

There was a time when my most meaningful reflections came during the quiet hours before dawn. While the rest of the world slept, I would awaken around 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning with a gentle awareness that I was being invited to come away from the noise.

Those early hours felt sacred.

Perhaps I first learned that rhythm from my mother. Before waking us for school, she would already be sitting in her favorite chair with a cup of Sanka, her Our Daily Bread devotional, and her Bible beside her. She never announced that she was teaching me anything. She simply lived the lesson in front of me.

Many years later, I found myself returning to the same stillness. I had learned how quickly circumstances could shift. I also learned that if I allowed everything around me to speak at once, I could easily miss the quieter voice within; so I began to pause.

I listened to my thoughts. I examined my reactions. I noticed the patterns that kept circling back through my life. I revisited old experiences and discovered that hindsight had been carrying treasures I was finally ready to uncover.

The woman I am today can see things the woman I was thirty years ago couldn't see.

It's because I have finally learned to honor the pause.

Pause and reflect.

How many lessons from your life have you rushed past?

What wisdom might be hidden inside an experience you labeled only as painful, disappointing, or unfair?

What if the answer you have been searching for is already being whispered within you?

Wisdom does not always arrive with a loud announcement. Sometimes it appears as a question that will not leave you alone. Sometimes it is a memory that returns with new meaning. Sometimes it is the quiet restraint that keeps you from reacting the way you once would have.

Sometimes wisdom sounds like, Wait.

Sometimes it says, Look again.

And sometimes it simply asks, What did this teach you?

At 70, I am still becoming.

I am not too old to learn something new about God, about life, or about myself. I am not too seasoned to change my mind, adjust my direction, or discover another layer of purpose. My age has not closed the door on transformation. It has given me more life from which to draw wisdom.

That is why Wisdom Speaks From Within feels different from every book I have written before it.

My earlier books recorded what happened to me and how I moved through it. This book invites me—and every reader—to uncover what those experiences came to teach us.

It is where the pieces begin to connect.

It is where the pain, healing, gratitude, courage, faith, and purpose gather in one place and speak.

This is not the end of my story. In many ways, it is the beginning of a new conversation.

The wisdom was there all along. I finally became still enough to hear it.

If you are ready to slow down, listen more deeply, and discover the wisdom your own life has been waiting to reveal, begin with Wisdom Speaks From Within: An Invitation to Pause and Reflect.