Answers. We all look for them. A sample yesterday from my twelve year old son... "What should I eat?" My response was a listing of options from our cupboard and refrigerator. "No Mom, I know what we have to eat. I want you to tell me what I should eat." My response was simple "An Apple." More frustrated now than ever he restates "No Mom! I know what is healthy! I want you tell me what I should eat!" My answer now was another question "Are you actually asking me to tell you what you want to eat?" "Never mind! Your no help at all!!"
or from my three year old grand daughter...
"What's that cow thinking about Grandma?"
"Does that cow have friends?"
and then there are those of my own making...
"Where's the money for these bills going to come from?"
"Is there any way to fit more hours into the day?"
"Where is the 'Peace' I am supposed to be actively pursuing?!"
"Can I post on my Pursuing Peace website - "Not having a great day - How 'bout you?"
Now I know alot about finding answers - I am almost 50 after all. That's a few years of answer gathering. By now I can actually find answers quite easily most of the time. Others - the ones I know will take diligent study to find are often simply set aside on the "I will work on that on that one later" shelf - unanswered but available. Still others I know are perhaps not meant to answered at all - at least not directly. These are actually the most important questions (and non answers). We all ask this particular type of question hundreds of times each day. Phrased silently to ourselves and to those around us. I am not the first to ponder upon this fact. Consider the following quote by American Playwright Tennessee Williams.
"Life is an unanswered question, but let’s still believe in the dignity and importance of the question."
I was discussing my question and answer dilemma with my husband a few nights ago. (My usual pre post check in) He shared that when he was in law school one of his professor's told them to keep rephrasing their questions until it could only be answered with a "Yes" or a "No" answer. In this way the truth would surely rise to the top.
Truth.
Seeking Truth?
Can Peace be found there? Amid the unanswered questions? Are these questions actually the left and right turn signals along life's path? Perhaps the question is there simply to move me towards an answer I already have... The Peace I am coming to know seems to follow a course that never allows me to see too far into the distance. I find myself putting my foot on the brake simply because I'm not sure where the next bend in the road will take me. And then there I sit - in the middle of road, people honking at me, with life folliage growing around my wheels binding me down. It is the fear of facing various "Truths" in our lives that keeps Peace at a distance. The truth is as we take our foot off of the brake we begin the process of navigating lifes many turns.
Hmmm....
"Where's the money for these bills going to come from?" (I'm not sure. But sitting here looking at them isn't going to make a deposit in my bank account.)
"Is there any way to fit more hours into the day?" (Nope. But tomorrow I will be given a new day ready to fill.)
"Where is the 'Peace' I am supposed to be actively pursuing?" (Just around the bend waiting patiently for me to catch up.)
"Can I post on my Pursuing Peace website - "Not having a great day - how 'bout you?" (Absolutely. But a better post would be "Celebrating Life's Good Things" and then receiving over 50 photo's and captions to remind me of a different question that needs asked ...)
The question is not what you look at but what you see.
--Henry David Thoreau