The past two weeks we’ve been reflecting on the questions that surface during times like these.
In our post, Is Something Wrong with Me?, we considered all that’s happened in the past 12 months and the toll it’s taking.
In our post last week, Am I Losing It?, we talked about how to assess if you’re crossing the line from feeling like, “I’m losing it” to the concern, “Am I seeing a pattern here that could genuinely put me in danger?”
This week, we want to reflect on a section of a letter by Rainer Maria Rilke on a way to approach uncertainty by “living the questions”:
Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. 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. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
– Rainer Maria Rilke
What does “living the questions” look like?
- Living the questions means sitting with the discomfort that comes from not knowing and letting that discomfort open us up to other ideas.
- If we live in a way that embraces questions versus jumping to answers that are easy, simple, and—ultimately—not impactful, we may begin to see opportunities that arise through the questions.
- Living the questions is an exercise in developing patience, acceptance, and wisdom.
Spend some time considering how you can start “living the questions” in a way that both honors you and allows for the answers to the questions to unfold over time.
Let us know what you discover.
How can we support you?
If you’d like support in sitting with the questions, contact us today.