Into the Unknown

Like it is - according to Diane
I feel angry. I feel afraid. I feel confused. I feel sad. I feel frustrated. 

I feel surrender. I feel joyful. I feel like I am on the right track. I feel safe. I feel peaceful. 

Sometimes my body and mind experience all ten feelings within the hour. The paradox.

There are times in my life when I have walked through my days with blinders on - but this is different. This time I feel like they’re not blinders. This is not a loss of peripheral, but both peripheral and what is right in front of me.  Does anyone feel the same?

I have often thought about how powerful the other senses must have to be if (knock on wood) I ever became blind (knock on wood, again). Maybe it’s time to turn up my listening skills, feel the feels, cook, diffuse … but most importantly, it’s time to turn to intuition and that inner knowing. 

I am a little lost at where to go with this post, to be honest. I’m rather blocked; stuck in the muck so to speak. 

I feel angry … when I scroll aimlessly. 
I feel afraid … for my children.
I feel confused … when some people I love are pro-mask and others are pro-conspiracy.
I feel sad … when I feel like I always have to be doing something and then I ignore my kids in the “doing.”
I feel frustrated … that shit isn’t open.
I feel surrender … when I stop doing and just be with my kids. 
I feel joyful … when I stop to count my blessings.
I feel like I am on the right track … when the universe tells me so. 
I feel safe … in my relationships.
I feel peaceful … when I am in the shower, or hot tub. True. 

We’ve always lived in the unknown. Maybe feeling ten feelings at once and the paradox that we are living isn’t about The Unknown at all.

Maybe it’s not that we’ve been blind-folded, but that the blinders have been removed and that our senses are on overload. 

Maybe this isn’t The Unknown at all, but what we’ve known all along. 

Hm.

​

Like it is - according to Vail
​I really didn’t want to think too much about what I was going to write because a blank page is the Unknown.  Once you begin to write, it almost inevitably brings you to uncharted waters.  And what do uncharted waters bring?  They can lead to discovery and adventure, but they could also lead to danger and uncertainty.  As we are facing the Unknown in a whole new way, I don’t want to say that it is easy to think of the journey as an adventure, but it is.  We didn’t pick this adventure.  We didn’t want this adventure.  But, here we are.  Keeping in mind that we must respect fear and danger, what if we change the equation?  Unknown = adventure.  

Here are the things that we do when we are on a new adventure:

We try new things:  I think back on my first adventure out of the country.  I was 15.  I went to Austria, which I had mistaken for Australia only a few months before.  It was the Unknown.  I tried a salad with a dressing I thought looked much like motor oil.  It was great.  I fumbled through learning words in German. I navigated public transportation.  I came back to the United States a changed person because I had gone into the Unknown.  As the Unknown continues, what else can we try?

We take pictures of the good stuff:  When I think of the best pictures I have ever taken, a tie between Dead Woman’s Pass on the Inca Trail and family selfies anywhere, anytime, the reason they stick out is because of the richness of presence and that moment in time.  As we forge into the Unknown, can we take mental or real pictures of the best parts?

We take our favorite people along with us:  I have traveled solo, but I have been surrounded by loved ones and fellow adventurers on most of my journeys.  There was a particular trip to the coast of Italy where my whole family and important friends (Diane) shared the experience with me.  Looking out at the Mediterranean Sea, I was just as grateful for the people as I was for the view.  The view was unfamiliar (and breathtaking), but the people were not. I think the power heading into the Unknown with others by your side is that the circumstances might be foreign, but there is a sense of home in your surroundings.  As we journey on, who will you have by your side?

Photo: Katie Drazdaoskatie on Unsplash