The Wisdom of Not Knowing

Raleigh, Cream Golden Retriever/Photo by Gaye Abbott

I don’t know, what it means to be alive? I only know we need to enjoy it.”

~ Hanna Naude, Montagu, South Africa

As this year soon comes to an end we enter the holidays – a time of year that is ripe for magic, connection, laughter and play. If we could only let go of needing to “know”, embrace a genuine sense of uncertainty, and see through the eyes and perceptions of a child – or a dog.

What better time to remember that it is important to play every day. Our children taught us that, and now our grandchildren and animals. Remembering that we continue to hold that inner child inside of us no matter what age we are.

Don’t you love it when you do something, according to our cultural standards, that is “out of character” for a “person your age”?

In those moments there is so much freedom to express from a much more playful and authentic side of ourselves. After all we can “get away with it now” as we break away from societies narrow standards of behavior that keep us grieving for lost opportunities to simply be ourselves in any given moment.

Whether it is inner child’s play for elders, suddenly breaking out in dance or song in the safety of home (or right out in public!), spreading paint all over a canvas, wearing funny socks that show, or learning something new and not being particularly “good at it”, but having a great time trying.

All of this takes a willingness to enter the Kingdom of Not Knowing. In this kingdom there is spaciousness for creativity and living in wonder and possibility. That is where play is born ….and art is created. That is where we trust the unfolding of life moments and try on new endeavors and new friends. That is where we let go of any fear that tethers us to certainty.

That is where Control and Judgement take a vacation together to Bali to loosen up and learn to let go and swim with the dolphins….

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“Why are we so obsessed with knowing everything? While there’s nothing wrong with knowledge and understanding, our insatiable desire to know and control all aspects of our lives often gets in our way of trying new things. There is no shame in not knowing, there is only freedom. An uncertain mind is an open mind. It is a mind which is curious and interested. It allows us to be creative and willing to live in a state of wonder and possibility, like children do. When we meet life with a genuine sense of uncertainty, we cease to project that which we think we know, and we instead begin to see life for what it truly is. It is life itself, unfolding before our eyes. “

Filmed in Montagu, South Africa by Reflections of Life. Featuring Hanna Naude.

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Gaye Abbott, Wildly Free Elder, 12/15/24