Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation. -Jung
I have a passion for this process of translating the inner symbolic life into everyday living, but lately I’ve been overwhelmed by the whys of this kind of work. There are so many strange and powerful things going on, giving me no clue as to their purpose and leaving me swimming in the murky waters of wondering why about almost everything that is currently happening in my life. Maybe this is partly the cycle of things, we eventually come to a point where nothing makes sense and have to begin the work of sorting and clarifying. Maybe it also has to do with the passing of my father, which has cast a very different light onto my life and put the whys into a larger perspective. Death rattles us into asking some very heavy questions as to whether we’ve gotten what we need. We begin to think about what we’ve left undone, what we’ve settled for, and where we’ve stopped searching. These are the big whys and they can get us down. There seem to be too many questions and no easy answers. More often than not the answers are complicated and lead us deeper into the mystery of the whys rather than into greater clarity.
Usually the whys are asking for more than we can give at the time. They require us to hang in there and hold tight until a solution presents itself. Always they are asking us to live differently, to live in a state of knowing but without certainty or specific details, which is in itself a feat to manauever. So how do we begin to tackle the whys? I’m sorry to say this is a question with no definitive answer. The best I can make of the overwhelming whys is that they are a guide to transformation. We don’t grow or change when we aren’t asking questions. And the whole basis of life is growth into new forms and identities. We are pushed forward by an unrelenting internal drive to make sense of the whys that are presented. Sometimes we are slow on the uptake and the same why comes around again in a different disguise. But if we can begin to look closer at what’s going on in our lives, with the weight of our past experiences behind it, we will have an opportunity to make sense of the whys and incorporate their sometimes tough lessons into the fabric of our lives.
The mysterious whys also have something to do with this quote by Jung. Everything that is inside of us wants a voice, wants to manifest in our daily lives. All of these things that are currently unknown to us want to be seen. Life is a continual process of gaining greater knowledge, not just endlessly sorting through what is already known. Always there is something more. That’s why some of the whys grab hold and won’t let go. They just keep shaking us, asking us to keep looking and listening more intently. They want to be understood. And if we can live with them instead of jumping into something that makes us more comfortable or burns our life down, we will be on our way to answering the whys in a way that brings wholeness. We have to be patient with them, we have to let them slowly unravel in our lives and show us what we need in order to gain greater wholeness.
The whys will never be easy. The easy times come in the rest periods in-between the whys. But they are invaluable, they point us to what’s next, they point to depth and meaning, and ultimately they point us to who we are to become.
Wishing you happiness in living with your whys.
kb
