Until We Write It
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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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After the challenges of the past two years, this is just the right moment to ask ourselves where we’re going in the coming year.
Because you’re the one writing the script for your own life, what shape do you want the next year to take? Join me this week as we consider ways of determining exactly that.
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Many artists and writers report feeling blocked or intimidated by the emptiness of a blank canvas or the stark whiteness of a fresh sheet of paper or by the incessant blinking of the cursor on their computer screen.
I don’t count myself among them.
Quite the contrary, it excites me to know that as I approach an empty canvas or sheet of paper, or the freshly turned earth of a new garden bed, or a rough piece of wood or stone in my carving studio, or countless other new beginnings, an infinite array of possibilities is open to me, just as they are open to you.
This week’s The Beautiful Question episode emerged in much the same way. For more than four years, I’ve begun each episode with a loose idea or at the very least, mental sketch idea of what I want to share with you, but I don’t write them from an outline or following some kind of template. Instead, I’ve learned to trust that the episode will take its own form as I write it, the same way life happens when we consciously choose to engage with it.
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Responding in the desert to someone telling him that a certain thing was impossible because the outcome was “already written in the book of life,” the late T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) answered by saying that “nothing is written until we decide to write it.”
As I considered the truth of that statement, this week I asked myself what will happen when I approach the coming year the same way, taking full authority to write it and design it as I see fit.
Like a book filled with blank pages or a canvas without a single mark or brushstroke on it, the new year is wide open as it stretches out in front of us. A few of the relevant questions we can ask ourselves are, “How do I choose to live this coming year?” “What do I want it to look like or feel like?” “In what meaningful ways will I fill my days”? “What things will I give myself permission to do that I kept myself from doing last year?” “What things am I ready to put away that I no longer need or want to do?” “What things are within my control this year?”
And then there’s the pivotal question, “Whose life is this and how am I choosing to live it and why?”
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The transition from one year to another offers us the opportunity to take control of our own lives. I’m not suggesting that we make yet another set of unfulfilled “New Year’s resolutions.” I personally find that exercise rather empty. Yet, real changes can happen when we choose to be fully and actively engaged with our lives. Those changes become even more meaningful when we are intentional about connecting with the best within us and around us—moment by moment, one day, one decision, one active step at a time.
Photo: TeamOne
I can’t predict what nature or the stock market or other people will do. But I can choose to be more responsive and less reactive. I can choose in advance to carry myself with greater amounts of Grace and forgiveness. I can choose to be more loving and accepting with myself and the people around me.
On any given day, we can actively choose to look for the good. We can choose to treat ourselves with greater care, like getting better sleep and eating in ways that are healthier for us. We can choose what things we are going to include and what things we are going to exclude from our lives. We can choose to be more connected with the people around us. And we can choose which people are not healthy for us.
And moment by moment, we can choose what we are thinking and how we are talking to ourselves. We can choose to be self-supportive and self-nurturing and self-loving.
Do you want to become more patient with yourself or with someone in your life? Write it into your new year.
Do you want to be more accepting and forgiving than you have been? Write it.
Do you want to save or invest more money than you did last year? Write it.
Do you want to laugh more and complain less? Please write it.
All of it is up to you.
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If nothing else, like a grand adventure, I offer this week’s episode as an invitation to step into the coming year with Purpose and Grace and Compassion and Meaning. And then we’ll watch what unfolds as we do.
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In the spirit of that authorship and unfolding, this week’s three Beautiful Questions might prove to be helpful.
Question One: If you were to write and put into place one statement to guide you through the new year—one statement that resonates deeply within you and helps you build the year you want—what would that statement be?
Question Two: If you were to be more loving and caring with yourself during the next year, what would that look like and in what ways would you carry it out?
Question Three: If it would help for you to have an accountability partner to help you stay on track during the coming year, who would that person be and in what ways would you interact?
I am always interested in hearing where your considerations take you and what good things come as a result. Write and tell me about it. I’m listening.
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My Light with Your Light!
Scott
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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.