The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has
its own reason for existing. One cannot help but be in awe when he
(sic) contemplates the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure of
reality. It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend a little of
this mystery every day. Never lose a holy curiosity. — Albert Einstein
A friend sent this quote to me today (thanks, Bill!) in reference to my two year-old son, and his great curiosity about the world. Children
are naturally curious, but as adults, we lose some of our ability
to question. We take our surroundings, our lives, what is possible, as static
or unchangeable.
When I taught outdoor education
to elementary
students, I saw how children were natural scientists: "why is the sky
blue?" As a child myself growing up in Pennsylvania in the 1970’s, I
wanted to help reclaim strip mines when I grew up – I saw myself
driving around the country in a VW Bus full of grass-seed, bunnies and
deer. While my ecology wasn’t quite on target, I knew even as a child
that I wanted to make a contribution to improving problems in the world.
In our busy lives, we often can forget the importance of stepping back and getting curious about our world. It’s the curiosity
that brought many of us to wanting to make a difference in the world in
the first place – we need to get back in touch with what made us
question the realities we wanted to change.
To consider curiosity as holy – to be reverent and in awe of questioning – I like that.
What’s your holy curiosity about?
What have you stopped questioning?
What’s too important not to question?
Before specializing as a professional coach in 2004, I spent more than a decade in leadership, management and program development for state and local government and non-profit organizations. Now I get to help leaders and teams have more clarity and ability to stand up for what's important in their work and in their organizations. Working with me, leaders and teams find more meaning and purpose, feel happier and more confident, navigate change and conflict, and work together better.
This posting, along with the posting about leaders being comfortable with *not* having the answers made me think of an article that a I read a few years ago by Sam Keen in Psychology Today. I thought I would be able to find it in my files, but unfortunately, my memory is better than my filing system.
The article was all about how the questions we ask determine who we are. I went to Sam Keen’s home page http://samkeen.com/home/ and along with seeing that his work is about asking mythic questions, he’s recaptured much of the article I remember in a posting called “On Loving the Question” at the following url: http://samkeen.com/fontsize2bwonderingsbfontp/. A quote from that posting that I like alot:
“Nothing shapes our lives so much as the questions we ask, refuse to ask, or never think of asking.”
So thanks, Hanna, for reminding me of the importance of the questions we ask.
And Carol, thank you for this wonderful quote and resource in Sam Keen! I’ll add this link to his site to my list of resources.