Dear Friends, I greet you with tenderness. In light of yesterday’s events, I considered replacing this post with something that spoke more directly to the moment. But in order to meet the moment, and all that lies ahead, we must develop our capacity to inhabit questions and complexity, to attune to that which is deepest within us and within all of Life.
As we enter a new calendar year, those of us in the northern hemisphere remain in the season of long nights and a fertile darkness that invites us inward . . . As I said in my winter solstice reflection, it’s a time of listening, dreaming, visioning, rooting.
Many people make resolutions in this season about what we will do (or refrain from doing) in the coming year. Often this is a list of goals, changes in behavior, or things we want to accomplish. But what is it that shapes that list?
What if we take a step back and look at the process through which we arrive at those resolutions.
Do they emerge from the logic of our brilliant minds, from what the dominant culture conditions us to value, or from the deeper urgings of our truest self? And how do we even discover what those deeper urgings might be?
We can open to a wisdom greater than our own, seeking clarity and direction beyond our logical mind. Like any discipline, this kind of consecrated listening takes practice. It requires we inhabit the place of not-knowing, living into a question rather than hastening to answer it. Ranier Maria Rilke, in his Letters to a Young Poet, counsels his young correspondent to “love the questions.” The great agriculturalist, inventor and mystic, George Washington Carver, believed if you love something enough, it will reveal its secrets to you. Love the questions, live into them, and remain alert for their whispered revelations.
Prepare by emptying yourself—as much as you can—of all the static that filters, blocks, or confuses: releasing your fears and desires, attachments and agendas. Pouring all of it out through tears, words, body and breath, so you can enter into a space of unknowing. Listening with belly and bones. Then keep emptying, keep opening and listening . . . faithfully. For as long as it takes.
Eventually something will arise in you. Not in your mind. Somewhere deeper, below the level of thought: an intuitive sense. At first it may be almost imperceptible, just a hint of a direction in which to proceed. Trust it. Follow it. See what unfolds . . . without assumptions or expectations. Intentionally practicing curiosity will help you stay open.
Keep walking with the question—making it your companion—step by step, as you are guided. Sometimes things might look a certain way for a while and then shift, and shift again. Like in a treasure hunt where you don’t get the map to the treasure from your starting point. You just get the clue to the next place, and there find the clue to the one after that, and from there the next after that.
Along the way we are changed. This is how Life works. We must keep listening always. Like using a GPS navigation system, we need to be attentive to constant updates and recalibrations as the conditions around us evolve.
Living in not-knowing is different from living in confusion. It’s a state of curiosity, presence, receptivity, and equanimity. Of beginner’s mind. Our job—our discipline—is to get our own thinking mind out of the way and expand our availability to that Spirit within, the Knower, so it can guide us. But as long as we think we know, there is no opening for a wisdom beyond ours to get a message through . . . .
I began this reflection talking about resolutions, and how we might come to them. But perhaps rather than a checklist of goals, the more valuable intention might be to cultivate our ability to tune in to that Inner Knower, so that whatever this year may bring we have the tools to listen for a wisdom to guide us.
As we go forward, may we be the places where peace, healing, compassion, and creative beauty take root and flourish. May new possibilities begin with each of us, in each of us. May we remember that we are not alone.
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UPCOMING OFFERINGS:
Sun. Jan 18th at 10:30am PT - “The Soul of Justice” - Sunday service talk and book signing at Oakland Center for Spiritual Living (in person or live stream). Info link.
Tues. Jan 20th at 4pm PT / 7pm ET - Community Book Conversation, hosted by Nurturing Justice. Register (free) to get zoom link: tinyurl.com/register-NJ-2
Find more at lizarankow.org/events
Part of this post is excerpted from my new book, Soul Medicine for a Fractured World: Healing, Justice, and the Path of Wholeness. (Orbis Books, Nov. 2025) Learn more at: soulmedicinebook.com.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash.
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