Mystery
“The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious…” -Albert Einstein
Several months ago my wife came home from her doctor’s appointment knowing the gender of our third child. She set a box from our favorite bakery on the table and waited for me to open the lid. I had no preference one way or the other (already having a son and a daughter), but was still eager to find out and move from not knowing to knowing. However, moments after opening the box and reading the letters scribbled across the cookies, I realized how much I had been relishing in the mystery. Perhaps this is why some parents elect to not find out their baby’s gender. Don’t misunderstand, I was excited to begin picking names and planning for his arrival (I could use a personal pronoun!). What surprised me was how intuitively I had been holding both realities as possible, and true, at the same time. Then, quite suddenly, one reality vanished.
Being disconnected from the world is, obviously, a quality to life at home. Watching the news or getting online throughout the day might help us feel a part of it, but it is always at a distance and with a slight delay. This happened frequently when I would work a full day at home and my wife would get home from a full day at work. She always seemed to know more about what happened in the world that day than I did. Whether it was on the radio while driving home or something co-workers were talking about, she was connected. My disconnection made the day mysterious. And the more days and time I spent at home the more I became aware of how mystery was always walking just ahead of me and inviting me along.
When you don’t know something, you can hold many possibilities as true. Mystery is the ability to be fully present in this reality while accepting the many unnamed realities that are waiting in front of you. Put differently, mystery is the union between today and tomorrow, what I am and what I hope to be, where I am and where I am going. Responding to the mysterious invitations each day brings is choosing to hold the definite in one hand and the indefinite in the other. For the certainty of one gives promise to the other, but the uncertainty of one awakens the other. While we initially resist paradox, unanswered questions and open ended plans there is a type of creativity, purity and potential that is only born out of that moment before we open the box of certitude.
There is a lot of mystery in the world right now. When will the places we love open again? When can we see and be with the people with love? What will it look like when that happens? The lack of answers to those questions is almost as frightening as the known reality we find ourselves in. Likely there is a lot of personal mystery in your own world. When will I get that promotion or new job? When can I retire? When will I become pregnant? When will I fall in love? The mistake isn’t to ask these questions, they are all valid and true. The mistake is to hold onto these mysteries with both hands, inadvertently dropping the assurances that ground your very life.
Life at home invites you to recognize the faithfulness of all that shows up for you everyday. Your favorite mug and the comfort of your couch. The friend or family member that messages or calls you daily. The books that keep their place on your bookshelf so you can keep their words in your heart as you walk past them. The pet that sits with you because you need it as much as they do.
May you embrace all the mystery that surrounds you so that you may remember the cornerstones of your life. May you not be dismayed when your questions go unanswered, but recall the truths you’ve already heard in a deeper way. May you live joyfully in the abundance of knowing and unknowing that you have graciously been given.