Living in the question with patience

"Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day."
from Letters to a Young Poet
by Rainer Maria Rilke


What questions do I need to live into? There are so many to choose from: How do I bring more joy into my moments? Why do I keep thinking there is not enough time? How do I live more in the present? What do I want for dinner? Like most traditionally schooled leaders, I used to think answers were the ticket to success or happiness. Now I find more possibilities in the questions and then experimenting with answers. Why did I need to have answers? To look smart. To fight the fear of uncertainty. To pretend I was competent. And yet to be fully alive and resilient questions are the answer.

Are you calling it a life or what in life is calling you?

"Listen, are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?
Mary Oliver

What in life is calling you?

My friend Lynn reminded me everytime we have made a heart-felt commitment, things have fallen in place. Last year she committed to being with her very ill mother and even in a recession, work fell in place that supported her decision. When Tom and I decided to build this house, we planned to tear the old shack down before we knew how we would pay for a new one. A client called and asked if I would mind quadrupling the work for the next year. I had visions of doors and windows delightedly dancing in my head.

So the question is are there some ways I am living small... too afraid to respond to the call? This past year, it was having the courage to put my voice out into the world. Still a struggle (with the little, who do you think you are voice) and I am grateful for my progress. What is calling me now is creativity? Not just playing in that realm, but having the courage to share what I create. So watch for some little myths to pop out into the world this year.