“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”    ―
Zora Neale Hurston,  Their Eyes Were Watching God

We often become impatient, expecting the answer to our internal questioning to be available to us on demand.  Our questions have their own timing though, and require waiting for the answer to present itself rather than trying to wring the solution out of dry cloth.  Something like trying to recall the name of a movie or author, when we give up and set it aside, at the strangest time it pops into our consciousness.

In the immediate gratification culture of the western world, the concept of sitting with something, a question or a thought, is not always the first consideration.  When we are trying to retrain our internal dialog, we sometimes forget that the changes can be slow and at times imperceptible, yet they are happening all the same.  To stay the course, to continue to ask ourselves where our happiness lies without expecting an immediate response takes a bit of training as well.  Ultimately, what we are working on is the internal discipline to wait, to listen to our own hearts, to be still and mindful of what is in front of us at this moment.  To plant the seeds of our thoughts out of season and expecting them to grow will disappoint.  If this is the season for questions, ask them.  If this is the season for answers, then listen carefully with your quiet heart.

I thought this would be a year of questions, a year of self-examination, and indeed it is.  Yet if I am careful and hold very still, sometimes the answer is there too.