The experience of uncertainty is uncomfortable; sometimes it's downright excruciating! Navigating uncertainty requires patience, open-mindedness, and trust, but the problem is we do NOT trust uncertainty. No, sir! We like to plan for and anticipate our life events. We have timelines and strategies. We like to call the shots.
However, life offers no guarantees (with the exception of death, of course). Perpetual uncertainty has always been a part of the human experience despite our best efforts to deny it, and much of our suffering stems from resisting uncertainty by playing it safe, bracing ourselves for the worst, or trying to control people and/or situations.
So onto the good news...
Pema Chodron, a brilliant spiritual teacher, has a more loving take on uncertainty. She refers to uncertainty as "fundamental openendedness." I love Pema's frame because an openended life implies a life ripe with possibility. If there are no guarantees, anything could happen. In fact, the freedom from guarantees allows us to be more creative and daring as we define our respective paths. It allows us to shed those limiting stories about our lives that we've carried for far too long. In this sense, uncertainty is liberating.
***
What are you waiting for right at this very moment?
The job? The promotion? The move? The relationship? The acceptance letter? The first home? The first child?
Waiting can be so uncomfortable; it even has the power to make us physically ill. We often believe that if we JUST knew how this one little thing would pan out, everything else would be OK. But we're kidding ourselves. Instead, we quickly divert our attention to the next thing - the next milestone. The waiting begins again, the what ifs? overwhelm us, and we think to ourselves, "man, I'll feel so much better as soon as I have resolution on this one last thing." And in that moment, we sincerely believe that one more resolution - one more piece of certainty - will curb our appetite for more. But then there's the next thing....
***
Life is a waiting game. The stakes get higher, and the uncertainty is perpetual. BUT uncertainty doesn't have to be the enemy; it could, in fact, serve us well. Maybe it will empower us to exceed our own expectations of what is possible for our lives? Maybe it will remind us that if nothing is guaranteed, we essentially have nothing to lose?
Anything could happen.