Embracing Uncertainty Through the Lens of Wonder
As we close out the year, I think about the significance of traveling on into new days ahead. I love this image of this red door as this bold door can not be missed. It is inviting and welcomes and beckons you to walk forward in and through. Other times doors and new opportunities are not so obvious as a red door, yet there is still a significant change happening even if it’s more subtle and seemingly small. And still other times passageways are more like long, dark tunnels, involving a process of walking through darkness before there is light and relief.
Sometimes when we have opportunities to knock on doors and walk forward into new passageways and opportunities we experience great confidence and hope around our decisions and trust that this passageway forward will be good.
Yet, often passageways are uncertain, foggy, and we might experience fear of the unknown. This might cause us to either freeze on the spot or tiptoe with trepidation towards this new opportunity. Other times we may find ourselves completely turning around, shutting doors, and even running the other way. Sometimes this may be out of discerning in wisdom the best path and choice before us, and other times it’s more about fear of the unknown, which is a powerful force.
Sometimes we know clearly what opportunities lie before us, but most of the time we are enveloped in a veil of uncertainty which can make walking forward anxiety provoking. So much of life’s journey and mitigating anxiety is really about becoming okay with uncertainty. One way to do this is to remember that while uncertainty feels foggy and we long for clarity, we can reframe uncertainty from being something bad to holding goodness. In this way, if we can trust the process of the unfolding story, we can view and experience the uncertainty through a lens of wonder and hope. This is not an instant process, but one that can be cultivated.
Walking into a New Year
As we all travel into a new year, that alone is a passageway forward. Simply because of the significance of time, we are all invited into 2024. We can decide if we receive this invitation with a sense of wonder of what the new year might hold. This passageway can be made more meaningful with a little bit of reflection on your hopes for the new year. In this you name what makes life most meaningful to you.
Others of you, in addition to the new year, have obvious life changes in front of you–job changes, a new baby, grief and loss, a child graduating and moving on, relationship changes, moving to a new home and community, a health diagnosis you are navigating, etc. Even under the best of circumstances, when changes represent great joy, there is a shifting from what we know that represents other layers of loss and adjustment.
Take a few minutes sometime in this passage of time from 2023 to 2024 to be still and reflect.
For Reflection
What kind of doors and passageways are before you?
What gives you courage and faith to walk through these doors and passageways before you?
Do you find yourself experiencing any layers of grief as you adjust to changes in your life?
How can you reframe the scary unknown to trust the process of the unfolding?
How might faith ground you more in a sense of wonder when facing uncertainty?
Elizabeth B. Burton is a licensed professional counselor with Burton Counseling, PLLC. In addition to counseling, Elizabeth provides life coaching, courses/workshops, and writing. You can learn more about the course on Coping with Anxiety & Stress here, and if you are interested in workshops, you can learn more here.
Elizabeth provides online counseling to individual adults living in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia. Elizabeth provides in person counseling for individuals located near Chattanooga, TN. You can learn more about counseling with Elizabeth here.
Elizabeth provides life coaching to individual adults and couples living anywhere. Life coaching services are available online, and in person coaching is available for individuals located near Chattanooga, TN. You can learn more about life coaching with Elizabeth here.
In her free time, Elizabeth enjoys reading and shares book recommendations for adults here and for children here.