Live the Questions

For many of us, this has been a really trying week. Lots of tears, disbelief, grief, and sometimes rage. I think it is important to sit with these feelings. Not get stuck, just sit with them for a bit. Feel the feels, all the ugly and scary feels, then know that somehow we are going to get through this. I have found sisterhood (with a few amazing men thrown in) very supportive, wise,  comforting, and has helped me to begin a healing process. We have to take care of each other during these tumultuous times. 

I would like to share the following:

I have been reading Ordinary Mysticism by Mirabai Starr. Great read, highly recommend. 

In one chapter she is talking about our default mode network or DMN. She says that neuroscience shows us that when we experience awe, our DMN grows quiet. This is where our monkey mind lives. When it is still in the wake of wonder, our awareness opens to the rest of creation. We turn our attention to the needs of the collective, and we spontaneously wish for the well being of others. 

“The compassion awakened in the heart of the amazed is not fluffy. It is like a deep, still pool. Studies show that people who experience awe have an increased capacity for critical thinking. At the same time your empathy is stimulated, your bullshit detectors are lit up. You are less likely to be manipulated by empty arguments and political rhetoric. When your mind is blown and your heart expands your humility deepens. You become aware that the world is magical, mysterious, and heartbreaking. You know that you know nothing, really, and this is not a problem. It’s a cause for celebration. Ambiguity, paradox, and darkness are the domain of wonder. You are honored to visit.”  Feels like a good thought for where we are now. Wishing you awe! 

I will leave you with this thought by Rilke...

"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 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

Artist: Monica Fernandez

Pairing by Whispers from the Heart