Meet Uncertainty with Wisdom

Times of Transition

We know that change is constant. Uncertainty is embedded in change whether the change is welcomed or unanticipated.

 

I was thinking about this as I read Pema Chodron’s book Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better. This book is her commencement address to the 2014 graduating class of Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.  The book’s subtitle tells more about the book:  “Wise Advice for Leaning into the Unknown.”

 

Times of transition present us with uncertainty and not knowing. Pema couches these times of uncertainty in terms of failure and success, but not in the conventional win-lose meaning.  She comments on our desire to succeed and warns against defining success as having life work out “the way I want it to.”

 

She says “It’s a little hard to tell what’s a failure and what’s just something that is shifting your life in a whole new direction.”

 

How do we listen to what’s happening below the surface and in the world around us to see what’s shifting?  How do we discern what is unfolding in our lives?

 

Here, Pema Chodron shares her experience of things shifting and coming together in a new and unexpected way in her life.

 

What’s shifting in your life?

Questions of the Month

What unanticipated change is happening in your life?  

 

What welcomed change is happening in your life?

 

What might be shifting your life in a new direction?         

 

How might you meet uncertainty with wisdom?