If the last four years has taught us anything, it is that uncertainty is a reality we must become familiar with.

And yet you are not alone if you find yourself resisting uncertainty and clinging to semblances of control.

Because our brains are so attuned to making predictions about what will happen (the survival of our species has depended on it), we don’t like it when our predictions fail or worse, when the future is so complex we can’t make a prediction.

If you experience a certain discomfort with uncertainty, this article is for you.

I extend an invitation to you to sit in uncertainty, to sit in darkness, to sit in the not knowing.

Something surprising happens to you when you don’t push away the discomfort uncertainty brings.

You build capacity.

You build capacity to pause.

You build capacity to not know.

You build capacity to handle reality.

You share the sentiment of Rainer Maria Rilke, when he wrote, “I love the dark hours of my being.”

The discomfort of uncertainty is eventually overshadowed by what David Wagoner describes, “Wherever you are is called Here. // And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,”

And maybe with time, you see the truth in Emily Dickenson’s words, “We grow accustomed to the Dark.”

What is a situation you are facing that feels uncertain?

And how will you linger a little longer in the uncertainty?

Love,

Audrey