Nested Inside Us
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(Lose the Net by Rasmus Faber Courtesy of Epidemic Music)
It absolutely amazes me that good questions lead us so naturally to good answers, and that beautiful questions lead to even better answers! When we open ourselves to the things we don’t know, we’ve opened the doors to discovery and wonder and greater understanding.
I’m Scott Lennox and you’re listening to The Beautiful Question, a consideration of things that matter every day.
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Have you ever stopped to ponder the multitude of marvelous things are safely nested deep within you, things that are just waiting to hatch and take flight when the season is right?
Join me this week as we consider some of the amazing and life-enriching possibilities alive within each of us. Stay with me.
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Graphite on toned paper: Scott Lennox
In a year or so, I’ll present an exhibition of my recent drawings and paintings—an exhibition I’m calling Levitations. The subject is bird feathers and wonder. I’ve spent great amounts of time focused on them and their incredible details and will continue to do so for the next year.
A couple of years ago, I watched a pair of cardinals coming and going to their nest hidden in the dense foliage of the Ligustrums that lined my back fence. After a powerful storm tore the nest away, I carefully picked it up and brought it into my studio to study it and photograph it for future reference. I later felt an irresistible urge not just to draw that nest, but to push the limits of my abilities as an artist as far as I could, and to do everything I could to imbue the drawing with the transcendent and ineffable qualities that brought the nest into being and cradled the lives that emerged from it.
I’ve written before that I’ve long been fascinated by bird nests of all kinds and have photographed and drawn many of them. I consciously avoid ascribing human traits to birds or other animals, but while I’m drawing, I can’t help but wonder about the hidden urge—not to mention hidden wisdom and abilities—that cause birds to build nests in the ways and in the places they build them. I ponder how aware they might be of what they’re doing and what’s ahead of them as they lay their eggs and brood over them until they hatch.
I muse about what’s happening below the surface of any awareness they may have.
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For several seasons before the nest was torn away, I watched the cycles repeat themselves in the same place and in the same way. I don’t know if it was the same pair of cardinals building the nest, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
One afternoon while I was out watering, I became as still as I could and peeked in. For as long as I stood there, the bird that sat on the nest remained stock still. The nest she sat on looked just like the one I’ve drawn. I wonder how many such cycles escaped my notice—how many other nests she may have built.
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An extreme freeze took out the Ligustrums and now I look out at wild vines slowly overtaking the high wooden fence behind my house. Somewhere nearby, the cardinals and countless pairs of wrens and sparrows and mockingbirds and jays and doves are building again. With unerring consistency, they follow the patterns and rhythms that are encoded into them.
The abundance of birds I see every day confirms that they are having great success with their perfect architecture and with the labor-intensive execution of their designs.
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Thinking about some of those nests, I reflect on some of the things I never dreamed would eventually show up in me or in my life.
After going through the sweeping changes I experienced twenty years ago, the life I’m living now is profoundly different from the life I lived before those things took place.
For example, I had no idea that I’d be living in my own studio, or that I’d be creating works of art that would travel the globe. I had no idea I’d be writing and producing these podcasts for the past five years. I had no idea it would be possible for me to become as patient as I am now or that I’d become so passionate about encouraging other people to live as fiercely and fully and gently as they can, day by day and moment by moment.
I had no idea the world would look so utterly miraculous to me, that life would be so precious, that I could love so deeply, or that I would experience such grace and heartfelt gratitude.
When I reflect on it, though, I can see that all those things (and much more) were nested somewhere deep in me the whole time. I don’t doubt at all that they were waiting for the right moments to reveal themselves. Wisdom and patience and artfulness and compassion and a genuine love of life didn’t suddenly appear in me. They’ve always been part of me, though I’ll confess that for untold years, I kept them put away or didn’t realize I had them to the degree I know and experience them now.
Nevertheless, I remain stunned by it all.
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Everything I’ve shared with you today is a setup to ask what wondrous things are nested in you and waiting to emerge. This week’s Beautiful Questions are designed to help you ponder and explore exactly that.
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Question One: When you look back on your life so far, what strengths or gifts showed up as a result of the ways you have had to struggle?
Question Two: In what ways would your life be different if you hadn’t struggled and overcome things as you did?
Question Three: What finer qualities are you aware of that are beginning to emerge in you now?
Because there is so much available to you right now, I invite you to take your time as you consider this week’s questions. As your answers reveal themselves, write and tell me about them. I’m listening.
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As I say each week,
My Light with Your Light!
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I’m happy we can engage this way as we consider things that matter and what to do about them. If nothing else, I hope you feel inspired to look more deeply at ways of caring for yourself.
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. We’ve also included an archive of all previous podcasts, including guided relaxation audios that can help you practice letting go on a daily basis.
If you find these podcasts useful, I encourage you to share them and 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. It’s a great way of spreading peace.
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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.