A life dependent on answers is an anxious life

​The older I get one thing becomes more clear. Many answers I discovered along the way weren't answers at all. Many truths I sought and found weren't truths at all.

It does make me wonder, is there such thing as truth? Real truth?

Are there such thing as answers? Real answers?

Everyone seems to have them, truth and answers. But none of them sound the same. Yours and mine, our truths are likely quite different. And if you're like me, your truths today won't even be your truths next year.

I'm not suggesting we live in a world with no truths. I have some personal truths that have stood the test of time and experience.

I am suggesting, though, that there are a lot of personal and cultural challenges that arise out of our dependency on needing to know the answers and hold the truth. Answers and truth, after all, are often just friendlier words for power and control.

If I know exactly what time the storms will roll through today, I have the power to make better outdoor plans.

If I know exactly where my son is going and who he will be with and what time he'll be home, I have control over my worry.

If I know exactly what he or she will feel and say when I share a hard truth, I have the power to exercise comfort in a challenging conversation.

But in all of those scenarios there is no truth or answer, only illusions of them.

I'm saying all of this because I've made a drastic shift in my life the last several years. I am much more fascinated with exploring the questions in life than I am demanding of the answers. There is a peace in knowing I will wake up today facing far more questions than I will be given answers.

There is a peace in knowing that almost every answer only leads to a new question. So why not avoid some of the prison walls that come with needing to know the answers and embrace the adventure that comes with diving into the questions.

Dependence on answers is dependence on control. And since answers are so elusive that dependence almost always comes with some form of anxiety.

Embracing the questions is accepting that life may not give me the answers. Embracing the questions is life's way of saying that life is far more about searching for answers than finding them.

Finding answers suggests a search is over.

Searching for answers reminds us that the search is NEVER over.

Maybe life is more about the learning than learned.

Maybe life is more about possibilities than truths.

Possibilities we quit looking for once we think we have all the answers.