From Uncertainty to Known

“The unknown kind of sucks.”

I don’t know that my friend’s words did justice to the news he’d just received. But even if he hadn’t just gotten shocking news, don’t we often think the unknown sucks?

One reason we think the unknown sucks is that we are holding two opposing thoughts in mind. These thoughts try to wrestle each other into submission, and to make matters worse, we often wrestle both, trying in vain to make one the victory while wishing the other would disappear.

What we rarely stop to consider is that – while sucking – uncertainty is a normal state. We cannot ride life’s whims without experiencing some conflict and uncertainty. If it sucks, perhaps it is supposed to. Tension and dissonance in one’s own thoughts is normal and always resolves.

The other thing about uncertainty is that we assume we are feeling competing future situations. If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that we never feel any situation, current or future, directly. We feel our thoughts about situations, and that is a much different understanding than believing we can actually feel the future directly.

This understand, while accurate, can often seem like a double edged sword. When worried, we understand that our worries neither accurately predict the future nor effectively ward off our fears from fruition. When hopeful, we enjoy it, but we remember that hope guarantees nothing.

And yet, with this understanding, perhaps a new wisdom and certainty settles in, a certainty that lies so deep inside it feels more universal than it does personal. With this certainty, perhaps we will come to know….

A courage to be strong enough to handle anything that comes our way;

A belief that life is good, even when it appears otherwise;

A confidence that things will work out;

A desire to shine brilliantly;

An honor in the way we carry ourselves through the darkness;

A knowledge that we live forever in the hearts and minds of those who love us;

A faith in a heavenly afterlife (or if you prefer, a merciful fading away to where started);

An understanding that we have today, and that’s all we ever get.

Best wishes. Be aware, be awake, and be alive today.