The Path Is Unfolding
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It’s been said that better questions lead us naturally to better answers, and that it’s in not knowing that we open the doorway to knowing. I’m Scott Lennox and you’re listening to The Beautiful Question, a consideration of things that truly matter in a complex world.
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One of the clever ways we keep ourselves stuck is telling ourselves that we have to have everything worked out before we take our next steps.
Join me this week as we consider the nature of the unfolding path of our lives. Stay with me.
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As I do from time to time, I’ll begin this week’s podcast with an entry from one of my personal journals. Written several years ago, it speaks about the way the path unfolds in front of us as we take each step, even when we’re uncertain of what that step needs to be.
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Every Time You’re Near courtesy of Epidemic Music
photo: Scott Lennox
I’ve come to recognize that things have a way of working out in my life, and that my path is unfolding naturally in front of me as I keep moving. Even when I can’t see it or feel it, it unfolds the same way the rest of nature opens and reveals itself, one event, one step, one moment at a time, and always right on schedule.
Knowing that, I’m free to let go of my self-imposed pressures to do things in a particular way or to perform according to some myth or fantasy in my mind or to be perfect. I’m free to stop holding back. And I’m free to stop as often as I like and for as long as I like, to catch my breath, to regain my balance, to find my bearings, or to simply rest and savor the moment.
When I’m in harmony with that great truth, there’s no way I can get it wrong. After all, I’m just exploring this thing called life. And unless I missed something along the way, I was never given a map or an operator’s manual.
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It took a while, but I eventually came to understand that I don’t have to see the step in front of me in order to take it. It will show up naturally as I simply step out. That’s true, even if I need to back up or head in a different direction. The fact is, before I took most of the steps that brought me to where I am now, I couldn’t see any of them until after I had taken them. And to be sure, it was only much later that I began to see the order and the pattern they had formed.
Years ago, I watched a video of a Monarch butterfly emerging from its chrysalis. As a caterpillar, it had gorged itself on milkweed leaves. Then, at exactly the right time, it stopped eating and crawled up and attached itself to the underside of a stem, where it formed a protective chrysalis around itself. A couple of weeks later, the chrysalis changed color and became translucent. Breaking free from it, a butterfly slowly emerged and hung upside down in the sun as its newly formed wings filled out.
No one told it what to do; it simply and mysteriously followed what was built into it.
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When you look back over your life, can you see that even when you thought you were lost, something organized and alive was naturally unfolding in you and around you? And can you see that just like the cycles of life in the Monarch butterfly, you were finding your way?
Accepting your life exactly as it is, are you willing to give yourself permission to take the pressure away and simply keep moving in whatever direction seems right to you? And are you equally willing to allow yourself to come to a complete stop from time to time if that’s what feels right and healthy and nourishing for you?
This week’s Beautiful Questions are about exactly that. I invite to take your time as you consider them.
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Question One: When you look back over your life, even if you’ve struggled or suffered, can you see the traces of something good and vital and alive running through it all?
Question Two: What will most likely happen when you choose to release the pressure or the demands you place on yourself about being perfect or “getting it right?”
Question Three: What simple things can you do to relax into where you are, and without getting ahead of yourself, how might you take your next steps as they come?
When you’ve considered these questions and you discover what arises, write and tell me about it.
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As I say each week,
My Light with Your Light!
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Thank you for joining me in these podcasts as we keep doing the things we can to respond to life in increasingly effective ways. As always, I’m open to your comments and feedback.
You can be further inspired by visiting my friends at Kosmos Journal. That’s K O S M O S Journal. Their mission is to inform, inspire, and engage global transformation in harmony with all life. You can easily find them online at Kosmos Journal dot O R G.
And at thebeautifulquestion.com, you can read the illustrated transcript of each podcast as you listen. You’ll also find an archive of all previous podcasts, including episodes three and four, guided relaxation audios that can help you practice letting go on a daily basis.
If you find these podcasts useful, don’t hesitate to share them or tell others about them. That’s a great way of helping me get a voice of calm and collaboration and balance and encouragement out into the world.
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I’m Scott Lennox, and this has been The Beautiful Question.
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The Beautiful Question is a One Light production, written, produced, and engineered by Scott Lennox at HeartRock Studios in Fort Worth, Texas, as a way of paying forward to life, being fully present, becoming better engaged with things that truly matter in a complex world, and committing to a healthier future for all of us.