Wisertree is a not-for-profit network of free digital products, including this website. We are dedicated to sharing information that guides people through life.
Letter from the Editor
Wisertree is the end result of a 44-year journey. The adventure all started when I began reading popular psychology books at 12 years old. Not your idea of an adventure? Well yeah, you’re right!… but those psychology books would eventually save me from a dark abyss of pain and confusion. The knowledge in those books helped me turn around a life that was aimed straight for disaster. And *that* was the adventure of it all.
In my childhood, the lack of parental guidance provided a lot of time alone. Our home was big and beautiful but it felt scary at night when I was the only one home – which was most of the time. The house had a small den with a mariner’s theme (lots of sailor stuff as a tribute to our east coast heritage) and an antique bookcase full of self-help books. It was a cozy room and felt like the safest place to be when the creaking of the empty house made it feel too creepy to wander around.
Growing up in a wildly dysfunctional environment, I suffered a series of major traumatic events by the age of 12. No guidance was offered on how to deal with all that pain and confusion. In fact, there was almost no guidance or mentoring on how to get along in the world at all. The elders in my life basically treated me like a baby bird that would best learn to fly if they just shoved it out of the nest.
That emotional neglect, coupled with my sensitive nature and the childhood trauma, was setting me up for disaster. It would be decades before I’d come to understand how much psychological damage had been done to me as a result of this toxic blend.
And so it was that these books in the antique bookcase made a real difference in my life. They provided comfort and understanding about the world, and about myself. That’s when the obsession started for me; to learn as much as possible in the hopes of diluting the psychological pain that overwhelmed me at such a young age.
In those early days, I made a silent promise. I’d learn as much as humanly possible in order to share insights with other people. In that way, others could also find their salvation… and ease their suffering too.
Knowledge can release us from all kinds of pain and confinement. Sometimes the confinement may be physically real, such as being the victim of domestic violence or literally ‘locked up’ like a captive or the incarcerated.
But more often, the prison can be of our own making. It’s in our minds. We get stuck in a situation or a belief and have no idea how to get out of it.
Lack of knowledge causes pain. When we unlock the solution to our dilemmas, the pain eases up.
And later, as we unlock more solutions to improve our lives, the pain slowly morphs into positive feelings like satisfaction, pleasure, even happiness!
Knowledge breeds power. The times when I have felt distressed or disempowered, I would seek knowledge as a way out. The more I learned, the more empowered I became.
This is what I wish for all of us. For me, and for you. That we continue to rise up and each become our best self. That we find the light of knowledge so that we can step out of our own darkness (whatever form that may take).
Please feel free to leave comments throughout this site about issues that you want to know more about. It’s our goal to help as much as we can.
We are all soldiers in the game of life. It’s a rough world out there! But we are not completely alone. We have each other. If we can just figure out how to get along, maybe we can all have a better experience.
Carry on brave one! We are all on a mission… together.
P.S. Many of our stories are light-and-breezy. Music and laughter are important for learning – and for living. It may not seem like you’re learning much from those. The reason we add such kinds of stories is because learning is hard!
And so we’ve added fun things to make it all easier to digest. Having a little fun while we learn makes it easier for the brain to retain new information. So just enjoy yourself and let it all soak in! Namasté
Powerful and useful functions, really fantastic, thank you very much!
it is great