The Ledge of Knowing [Maritime Celtic Folk Version]
[Intro]
Knowledge is power?
That's not strictly true
It's the application of knowledge
That differentiates the many...
from the few
[Verse]
A lifetime spent
Is not a lifetime earned
And don't you know
Father time's unforgiving
You either get busy dying
Or get busy living
What do you want it to be?
A lifetime learning
Yet you're still stuck at the station
That's the difference
Between knowledge
and application
[Chorus]
You can study every sea chart
And never leave the port
You can research every weather map
And lack an original thought
You can fill your mind with knowledge
Till there's no more room to grow
But wisdom only comes alive
When you surrender to the flow
[Verse]
Some collect knowledge
from every culture, every nation
But accumulation can never compete
With the miracle of transformation
The ocean doesn't need to count
The number of books you've read
It responds to how you climb the rigging
Not the theories inside your head
[Chorus]
You can study every current
examine every shifting shore
You can memorise the stars
Yet never enquire what they're for
You can fill a mind with knowledge
Till there's no more room to grow
But wisdom only comes alive
When you surrender to the flow
[Interlude]
[Verse]
The harbour has its comforts
Sheltered from the ocean's call
But every dream worth chasing
Lay beyond the harbour walls
The sea becomes a classroom
The storm becomes a guide
Every challenge carried lessons
No textbook could provide
[Chorus]
You can fill your sails with wind
End every prayer with the word amen
You can come to know all these things
And yet resist being born again
You can fill your mind
with knowledge
Till there's no more room to grow
But wisdom only comes alive
When you surrender to the flow
[Bridge]
The map can never replace
the compass and the sea
Every answer was an invitation
Every lesson was a key
Knowledge opened up the door
But it was experience
that set me free
[Chorus]
The harbour lay behind me
The horizon lay ahead
Every lesson ever learned
Now lives in what I've said
You can fill your mind
with knowledge
Till there's no more room to grow
But wisdom only comes alive
When you surrender to the flow
Knowledge showed the door
But application turned the key
One described the ocean...
The other...
finally set me free
[Outro]
Copyright Taun A. Richards 2018