Grasping Uncertainty

Many of us tend to crave a kind of certainty about life; we want to know where we are, where we're going, and what life will "be like" when we get there. Indeed, the rather desperate attempt to acquire wealth -- I don't mean money, but I mean excess wealth -- is really, on the deepest and simplest level, a craving for certainty.

Unfortunately, certainty in life really doesn't exist. It's not that it "shouldn't" exist or "should" exist -- I'm not saying either of those things. It simply doesn't exist. Relative certainty, yes, at times does exist. But absolute certainty simply does not. We have no certainty that we will be here an hour from now; let alone next week or ten years from now. We have hopes and dreams and "best guesses," but none of that is absolute certainty.

Now, this may seem kind of depressing, right? Scary, too. But it's not meant to be. Life is an adventure, and a mystery that cannot be solved; because solving the mystery requires certainty, right?

And furthermore, what fun is a mystery if you know the answer? What fun is reading a book if you know the ending? The very flavor and depth of the experience -- of reading that book -- is the freshness of it; is the fact that, on every page, there isn't a little summary at the bottom that tells you how the book will end. It's an adventure; it's a mystery.

Let go of the need for certainty in a world where it does not exist. Instead, accept the fact that life is an adventure -- an invitation to experience. Sometimes it's energizing, sometimes it's depressing. Sometimes it has laughter; other times, tears. Sometimes silence, other times noise.

Accept it all, and embrace life as an adventure. Because that's what it is.