How do you handle hard times?
What do you do to transcend personal pain? Who do you talk to?
The last several weeks I’ve been reading “When the Heart Waits” by Sue Monk Kidd in my woman’s group. The author relates her passionate and moving tale of a time when life seemed to have lost meaning — When her longing for a hasty escape from the pain yielded to a discipline of “active waiting.”
Creativity flourishes not in certainty but in questions. Growth germinates not in tent dwelling but in upheaval. Yet the seduction is always security rather than venturing, instant knowing rather than deliberate waiting.
And yet, waiting can be so terribly isolating. And scary.
Fear propels us into frenzied activity desperately seeking answers, a way out of the darkness.
Sometimes it seems we’re “quickaholics” — people compulsively seeking out quick and easy ways to live and solve problems, avoiding what is deep, difficult, and therefore growth-producing. We yearn for what’s fast and instant because we don’t want to endure the suffering of change.
“Most people prefer the certainty of misery to the misery of uncertainty,” writes Virginia Satir, a pioneer in the field of family therapy.
What does “active waiting” mean to you? Is it different than sticking your head in the sand? I think so.
How do you resist the lure of the quick and easy? Where do you go for support when times are tough?
Me? I go to my girlfriends first. And then I reach out to my colleagues. How about you?
Thanks to @mindyg for sharing.
