What is your inner response, reaction, feeling when you “don’t know”? How do you usually navigate life? Do you gravitate toward things you know, toward the facts, what you’ve done before, what you know you can accomplish? Do you gravitate toward the certainty of knowing, rather than the openness, curiosity, vulnerability of the unknown?
Of course there are places in life where knowing and certainty and precision are vital! Consider, here, baking a cake or balancing the checkbook. I’d like to suggest, however, that in so many areas of life this insistence on THE answer, THE right way, THE knowing is the foundation of separation, argument and struggle. It is the brick and mortar of the invisible wall we construct around ourselves which blocks out others’ ideas, creativity, ideology – and possibility! When I believe something 100%, then I cannot take in whatever you have to offer – you cannot penetrate my wall.
What would it be like to live in the question?
What if we stopped seeking answers and certainty and, instead, moved through life assuming there is much we don’t (or can’t) know – or that the next person we meet has a totally different understanding to share? Can you imagine living in child-like wonder and delight as life presents itself to you? For a bit of what this might be like, check out:
I Wonder (Lyrics and Recording)
Today, imagine changing your internal dialogue from “What do I know?” to “What don’t I know?”.
What’s possible when you “don’t know”?
What is it like to “live in the question”?