Embracing the Unknown … What a trip it is, being alive! We are inundated by wild, scary, unsettling, as well as heartening, gratifying and fortuitous developments — in our personal lives, affecting all people and our whole planet. Positive thinking! Life Transformation! May we seize the many opportunities to help bend that moral arc toward justice and kindness, compassion and good will — toward ourselves and others, as is possible in our spheres. If you are short for time, do check out the two videos at the end of the post. Each travels into unknown territory!
A while ago we passed the first Cross Quarter Day of this year, called Imbolc in the Celtic calendar. February 1-2 falls midway between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox. St. Brigit’s Day, Candlemas, and Oimelc are also celebrated at this time of year. And the film Ground Hog Day (quite funny!), reminds us of another name for February 2 :-). Many traditions focus on the increasing power of the sun and the coming of warmer and longer days — fertility, blooming, opening. A wonderful season indeed! And opportunities for Positive thinking! Life transformation!
I recently had the good fortune to spend a few days with dear women friends. We hiked, feasted, shared deeply, soaked in a luscious hot tub at the edge of the ocean. We also each drew a card from the Animal Medicine deck, and mine was the Black Panther. The teaching was about Embracing the Unknown… quite fortuitously, since I have been pondering some significant unknowns in my life. “Embracing the unknown” seems a perfect theme for this note and relatively new year.
The Black Panther medicine includes this enlivening entreaty:
“Oh Midnight Jaguar…
Wash me with your courage.
And steel me with your grace,
So I may know the value of
The void of time and space…
And steel me with your grace,
So I may know the value of
The void of time and space…
Embrace the unknown
and flow with the mystery
that is unfolding in your life.”
Embracing the unknown: when we are able to embrace and open the unknown in our lives, when we can be curious about, and even positively inclined toward the unknown, rather than resisting, fearing, shoring ourselves up, or bracing against it, this mindset determines how the unknown will unfold and reveal itself in our lives. We set ourselves on a track for what’s now unknown, but is coming our way, to enrich and empower us in unexpected ways. May it be so!
Apropos of these, in my life now there are some big unknowns — health issues for some people near and dear to me; some financial changes and challenges; and then of course there is the uncertainly in so many areas in our world. When I am open and curious, ready and willing to see gifts in what the future holds, my day brightens, I relax, and can be present and bring my best to whatever may come.
How does “Embracing the Unknown” land with you? I’d be pleased to hear if any of the “medicine” or message resonates with you.
Wishing you health and wellbeing, unexpected gifts and opportunities for the coming months, for 2024, as spring opens and blossoms in our lives.
Warmly, fondly, open-heartedly,
Jill
Other relevant posts include:
• The Power of Positivity: The power of positivity is not about being a Pollyanna and denying dark sides, challenges, hard emotions or actions, our own or others’. The quality of our thinking, whether it’s catastrophizing or cultivating compassion, whether it’s planning and obsessing or focusing on gratitude and positive events, or simply Being, these choices determine our quality of life, and so much more…
• Mindset Matters Mightily: Where and how we put our attention, the thoughts we think, how we engage with them…all make a whopping difference… throughout our entire life, both inside and outside. Our thoughts, can, very literally, determine our emotions, our experience of the unknown, of what’s coming our way.
In closing, I invite you to enjoy two heartwarming videos.
A flight of Fancy — aerial animation 6 minutes
The Last Repair Shop This Oscar Nominated Short Doc is well worth the 40 minutes
Snow drops peeking out!
Jill Schroder is the author of BECOMING: Journeying Toward Authenticity. BECOMING is an invitation for self-reflection, and to mine our memorable moments for insights, meaning, and growth. Check the website for a sample chapter, or see the reviews to get a flavor for the volume. Your feedback, forwards, tweets, likes are most welcome.
