Unresolved
Questions
“Be
patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the
questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers which cannot be given you
because you would not be able to live them and the point is to live everything.
Live the questions now…”
Rainer
Maria Rilke
All of
us have a million questions about what comes next—when will the pandemic end, will
there be an orderly transition of power here in America, will there be anarchy
in the streets, how many more of us will die before the vaccines are readily
available? Questions, questions--questions without answers. For now, we must
wait, which is the most difficult thing of all. It seems we have already been
waiting forever. Our impatience is growing as we watch the number of
hospitalizations creep ever upward and the number of positive tests pushing
fifty percent. But for now, we must take some deep breaths and contain the
questions. Answers come in their own time.
In the
meantime, we could resolve to be happy. In The Book of Awakening, Mark
Nepo writes, “The key to joy is being easily pleased.” This weekend, do
the little things that make you happy. I had dinner with some of my “pod” last
night and their dining table was covered with a jigsaw puzzle. They had spent
the better part of 2 days putting it together and they were down to the last maddening
thirty pieces. You could do a puzzle. It’s also a good time to read a book, bake
some cookies, write thank you notes—use whatever creative outlet you enjoy that
keeps you from stewing on unanswered questions.
We have
a brand new year spread out before us and we do not know what it will bring. We
do, however, have excellent and active imaginations. For now, instead of
focusing on what could go wrong, why not contemplate all the positive
possibilities? If you knew that a year from now you would have created the life
you truly want to live, how would it look? What changes would you need to make
for that to happen? Are they doable—realistic? What is stopping you from taking
step one to get there—now, on this second day of the new year? As 2020 proved,
a lot can change in a year. And that change may even be good. Imagine that!
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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