Live The Questions

The questions we ask can ‘make or unmake a life’, says poet David Whyte. The right question, asked by the right person at the right time, has the power to jolt us awake to the ways we have been asleep in our lives. We suddenly realize who or what we’ve outgrown; we get clearer about how little time we really do have; we ask, in ways we usually take care to avoid, who we really are and what really we want for our lives.

The pandemic has forced many of us stop and sit with many of these kinds of questions. What matters is not the answers, the but the mere willingness to sit humbly with the questions. That uncommon, courageous act - that willingness to let understanding ripen on it's own time - does the slow, invisible work that’s needed for us to live more conscious, authentic lives.

Here are a few questions that are worth asking as we reflect on the time of the pandemic:

What did I embrace?

 What did I let go of?

 What changed for me?

 What did I discover about myself?

 What was I most grateful for?

 When did fear hold me back?

 Where did I practice courage?

 Aside from the pandemic, what surprised me the most?

 How have I taken care of myself physically? Mentally? Emotionally?

 What new ways of being and doing have I discovered?

 What feels important than ever to me?

 What am I ready to begin?

You don't have the answers to these questions yet?

That's ok, says poet Rainier Maria Rilke: "Live the questions. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

Find real questions to live by. Contact Adrian about walk-and-talk counselling in Vancouver today.