Living the Questions: A Wisdom Collage

“Here’s a woman who knows that the well-defined question has the edge. Such a question reveals a lifeline — a source of inspiration and a form of personal and political expression.”

Here’s a quick collage I did while playing last week. I didn’t even glue these words down. I was listening to Cynthia Bourgeault’s book The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three while I played.

This collage brought Rainer Maria Rilke’s beloved quote to mind:

“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 now 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

For much of my life, I sought answers before I began walking.

Questions have called me more deeply into my becoming than any surety, which tends to slip through my fingers and evade my grasp. Living into questions has given me a feel for relying on the perception of my subtle senses. I pay attention to highly-configured patterns and confluences of synchronicity along the way.

I hold out my hand and snowflakes of wisdom fall into it.

They are real.

I see them. I feel them. They are fleeting, though. They melt, leaving me with a wet palm, and a warm heart — a knowing I cannot prove or explain fully.

I’m Curious…

What does this collage stir in you? I’d love to hear in the comments.

Would you like some company as you live the questions? I journey with folks in spacious accompaniment and spiritual direction. I’d love to hear what’s stirring in you.