Begin Again

Write about what you know.

Isn't that how the advice goes?  If you are writing a blog post or e-book, in your journal or on a timed final exam, just write about what you know.

The thing that sucks (or at least makes writing more difficult) is the further along I get in this exploration of life, of energy, of unity...the more I realize I know very little.

Don't get me wrong.  I have many good ideas.  Tons of them.  Blow-your-socks-right-outta-the-water kind of ideas...multi-million-dollar ideas.  (Perhaps I should follow through on those...)  But what do I know?  Pretty much nothing.

To me, ideas fluctuate.  They are cloud-like fields of knowledge and wisdom.  They certainly are something - after all, we know when we have "an idea".  But at the same time, they are fluid and ever-changing.

To assert that something is "known" seems to freeze that idea cloud.  It makes it a hard fact, an ice-cube that sinks to the depths of our reality ocean.  In the dark, it goes unquestioned...often times we forget it is there.

Those known facts become blocks upon which the waters of our reality flow.  They are only harmful when they go unexamined.  When we assume water (reality) naturally flows like that...not knowing it is only flowing around that "fact" that we froze and placed in the water's way.

A few big examples: At one time, we knew the world was flat.  We knew the other planets revolved around the earth.  We knew Pluto was a planet.  (Poor Pluto.  You're still a planet in my book.)  

Most of us didn't question those things.  Instead, we built our belief systems (our ideas and other things we "knew") off of them.  Of course you wouldn't sail a boat too far in the ocean or you'd fall of the edge; thus, long distance sailing and the ships necessary for those journeys didn't need to be built.  I'm not a history buff, but ship-builders may not have had a great deal of encouragement to build beyond the traditional trade-route ships...Josiah, the local ship-builder, may have thought his job a bit routine.  Josiah knew the world was flat, so why bother building a fancy ship that would just fall of the edge into nowhere?  Craziness.

But there were others who were willing to admit they simply didn't know.  And because they didn't know, they were filled instead with ideas.

What if you and I could let go of our egos long enough to just say, "I dunno!"?  What if....?

Too often, when we think "I don't know...", we run to find an answer.  The answer.  (Assuming every question must have AN answer.)

We don't know how to run a blog.  We don't know how to start our own business or find our target market.  We don't know how to paint a face or do this art journaling thing.  We don't know how to do yoga or run.  We don't know how to balance our checkbook or fix the toilet or......yada yada yada.

We admit we don't know and go searching.  Somewhere along the way, we lose our i-don't-know-ness -- what is sometimes referred to as "beginners mind".  We assume we have found THE answers.  We assume that someone else "knows" and because they shared, now we "know".

We forget that everything...everything....is just an idea.

Suddenly, what we know becomes right.  Anything other than that is, of course, wrong.  And our exploration stops...because we know already.  Why waste our time examining that which we already know?  

What was once just an idea was believed so strongly that it became a fact that was shared as a fact and now that fact isn't even questioned because it is a FACT.  And so reality is built.

Could we, perhaps, be willing to admit we don't know?  We have many awesome ideas.  We can...we need to share those ideas.  

Likewise, could we be willing to admit that others don't know?  This one may seem easier, but this means accepting that even those you hold in high regard...those big players on the internet or your guru, your mom or teacher...don't know.  

If we can all run with ideas, the world becomes a place of exploration.  Reality becomes uncertain.  This can be uncomfortable if we cling to the idea that we must know...if we cling to those ice cubes.  But once we realize we can swim, life becomes an entire ocean of flowing possibility. 

Today, if only for one day, don't know.  

Every moment, Begin Again.  

Enjoy simply exploring.

Namaste.