Uncertainty

Excerpts copied from Cheryl Richardson's weekly newsletter, C. Richardson is the Author of "The Unmistakeable Touch of Grace" Last week, I spent some time with a dear friend who's going through a tough time as he struggles with multiple life changes that have left him reeling, yet pregnant with possibility. We talked about how challenging times require a need for patience and the ability to be with ambiguity when you don't know the answers and you're feeling frustrated or afraid. I don't know about you, but it's challenging for me to be patient, to live with uncertainty, or to sit still in a storm. I'm restless, impatient, and far more interested in getting answers than being with questions. But, therein lies the beauty of transition and change. It forces us to grow, to strengthen our spiritual maturity, and to fall out of the comfortably numb rut that eventually leads to regret and unbearable pain. Our conversation reminded me of the well-known passage from Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke. Do yourself a favor and use this quote to help stabilize the rough waters of your busy mind. Take your time and read it with your heart, not your head. It's a message that gently reminds us that life is about staying with and living the journey, not waiting to arrive at a destination. Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked rooms, or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. ~Rainer Maria Rilke