My mom is really good at games. She fills out crosswords in record time, answers trivia questions with ease, and loves to watch game shows when she gets a chance. Growing up, Jeopardy! came on right around the time Mom started making dinner, and I think it helped her manage the stress that came from feeding 7 other people for the THIRD time in one day, knowing she’d be doing it again and again and again.
“What is.”
It was the way most of the “answers” to all of the Jeopardy! trivia started.
“What is existentialism, Alex.”
“Correct.”
Except it wasn’t an answer, it was a question. The maddening paradox of Jeopardy! is the “answer in the form of a question” rule because, of course, the questions were actually answers.
This last week, I found myself stuck in a place I like to call “What Is.” It’s a place where I find answers to questions. Rather, it’s a place where I WAIT for answers to questions.
I LOVE research. I think I inherited my mother’s hunger for information, but it came without the ribbons and fanfare… I am absolute bunk at games and trivia and I can only finish crosswords with a cheat sheet.
Research lights me on fire, especially when I’m researching PEOPLE. The best pay off in research in answers. I love getting answers.
But what happens when you don’t get them as you’re looking for them? What happens when there’s no book to look in? Nothing to punch into the Google search bar? No person to call for YOUR OWN answer? What happens when you have to just… WAIT for the answer to come to you from God instead?
That’s when I go to the place, “What Is.”
Sitting in “What Is” has proven time and time again to be one of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. I squirm because I am NOT patient. The lack of answers becomes more painstaking than the actual question.
There’s a Zen saying -a humorous one -that goes, “Don’t just do something -sit there.”
Yes, it’s funny. But it is also SO FREAKING SPOT ON for me. (I’m reading about Zen-like stuff right now. More about that soon…)
I happened to read an article in a magazine this last week that was really, really hard for me. There was some truth in the article, but I felt (and feel) there was something off.
So what IS IT?
WHY am I feeling this?
I was triggered. I reached out and prayed. I reached out to some trusted friends. I processed and I still felt a painful stab in my heart -I felt OFF all around, and I couldn’t seem to burst out of the feeling of it all.
I WANTED TO BE OKAY while I waited, while I sat with What Was. Being calm in stressful situations is a personal goal of mine, and I was frustrated with myself -that I WASN’T calm while I waited for answers from God. In short, I was impatient with myself and impatient with God’s lack of immediate answering.
The double-fold impatience became heavier than the questions I had!
I was annoying myself.
Leading up to this point, God had carefully prepared me. I had gotten back into doing my dailies, and the day I’d read the article, I was in a good place emotionally, physically and spiritually. In the days leading up to my reading the article, I’d been reading a book loaned to me by a friend -It’s a book about yoga, and as I read it, I feel like my soul is getting a massage, and sometimes I fall asleep because it just FEELS so good.
Days before reading the article, I read a passage in the book that put words to something I’d been trying to put words on for years… the place known as “What Is.”
“Through patience, you can possess your soul. When you catch yourself speeding through life, when you feel you must meet expectations and that so much of being left undone or that you’re not succeeding as quickly as you think you should be, you must remember that real growth doesn’t come from pushing through or breaking out of anything. Rather, it comes through a gentle melting in. The path of patience asks you to be okay with what is, stare it straight in the eye, and open to and learn from what’s happening rather than contracting into fear, frustration, and a hidden drive to meet your expectations at any costs. We must remember that when everything has to be right, something usually isn’t.” ~Baron Baptiste, “40 Days to Personal Revolution”
As I talked with friends and God and processed my swirling reaction, I said, “I need to MELT IN.” The next day, I could still feel my lack of serenity. I spoke with my husband and said, “I need to figure out how to be calm and find peace in WHAT IS.”
So many prayers were said.
Tears popped to my eyes as I tried to force open a heart that felt hard during General Conference.
I was reminded of another passage in the book that absolutely fascinated me.
“Each year, I conduct a weeklong bootcamp in the mountains of Montana. A Lakota elder medicine man takes us through a sweat lodge ceremony, in which up to ten of us sit close together in a pitch-dark tent around a blazing fire, praying and chanting. I always notice an interesting phenomenon: certain people insist on sitting right by the little exit flap of the tent. They are adamant, claiming they must be near the door. I have witnessed these same people break down into intense emotions, fear, and often racking sobs. You later hear them say that as the steam and heat increased and filled the space with full intensity, they were sure that something terrible was going to happen. They convinced themselves to stay by saying that if they were near the door, they would be able to make it through to the end. The truth is that even if they didn’t sit by the door, they would make it through.In our total commitment to inner revolution and growth, we don’t get to sit near the door. We don’t get to duck out if the process becomes uncomfortable. We learn to stay with ourselves, no matter what.” ~Baron Baptiste, “40 Days to Personal Revolution”
On Sunday, some solid answers came. Mercifully short timing.
How can I learn to be okay while I sit in “What Is”?
There’s no trivia answers, no outside answer, nothing I can read or study or outline or memorize… the answer is deeply personal to me and found deep within myself.
I can only access it by delving inside -by STAYING WITH MYSELF, no matter what.
I hope I’ll get better at it, and I know it will take a great deal of practice. My impatience is truly one of my grandest stepping stones to God (that’s just a nice way of saying it’s my biggest thorn in my side).
Yesterday morning, I walked outside into the fresh, crisp morning and let my toes enjoy the wet grass -it rained last night… the heavy, gorgeous kind of rain where the sheets fall so fast it looks like mythical creatures are dancing in mid-air. Yesterday morning, everything was new. I let my bare feet soak up the wet green grass.
How much longer will our grass be green?
I don’t think about it. I can’t live in the future. It’s just a shadow of the present, as my pretend-friend James Allen says.
I keep quiet. I had purposefully NOT checked social media before heading outside. I pay attention to my breath, and it feels like I’m oxygenating anew my entire being -the stale air from my bedroom was exiting through my mouth as I breathed in the brand new air from the after-storm.
My mind begins to wander and I practice being gentle about pulling it back. I’m mildly successful. I begin my prayers, and find that as I pray and give thanks for what it around me and with me, I want to drop my hands down to my side, palms facing forward.
With my mind still and calm, my eyes closed, my palms open, mirroring my heart, I tell God I am ready.
At that exact moment, the sun burst forth from behind a dark rain cloud. Though my eyes remained closed, I could feel the light. I could “see” the light changing, everything brightened up behind my eyelids, and I felt God’s warm love wash over me completely.
In that moment, I found that What Is was in my front yard, and that God lives forever in What Is.
What Is isn’t always painful, but it always has the potential to be peaceful and it always is a place where I can learn, grow and increase in wisdom and humility.
What Is.
It’s elusive and also? The only place we really have.
The past can’t be be fully lived in.
The future can’t be fully lived in.
Trying to live from from either of them produces only pain, regret, and a shallow kind of life.
The present is What Is.
So often I’ve said, “It is what it is,” and shrugged… admitting that I can’t change something, but today I say it with intent.
“Right now IS what it is,” and I let go of the past -the struggles and regrets. I let go of the future -the anxiety and unknowns.
And I AM HERE now in WHAT IS. This is the best way. It keeps me from missing out on listening peacefully to thunder so booming and echoing that I can only describe it as delicious. It keeps me from missing out on the kids -their smiles and tears, their worries and fears. It keep me safe from the sicknesses and stress that come from the anxiety that plagues me. It keeps me calm -it makes what I have enough, and gratitude abounds. I am more open to loving relationships, more prepared to hear God, and more whole in every way.
It is REALLY hard to stay present when things are hard, when I’m waiting for answers or when something has thrown my serenity out the door.
Will “What Is” ever be my constant home?
I hope so, but it feels impossible. But then again -I can’t worry about the future…
(I feel like I need to add a disclaimer: I took the pictures AFTER being present. I didn’t snap them in the moment because snapping pictures has the potential to sometimes take me OUT of the moment. Amen.)
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