“The Great Recalibration” (Part 1): The Importance of Living the Questions
“Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves …” ― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
Over the past 2 years, I’ve written about the many changes occurring for those of us who work in healthcare that were catalyzed by the COVID pandemic, including “The Great Resignation” (from work), as well as my self-named “Great” reprioritization (of focus/time), reduction (of work time), and relocation (of work place). The common denominator for all these is an underlying sense that if there’s going to be so much external change, then perhaps it’s time for each of us to seize the opportunity and look at what might also need to change on the “inside.”
Now, as we continue to heal from the past 3-years, many find themselves tempted by the sentiment to “move on” or “pick up where we left off”, both individually and organizationally. Neither of these temptations acknowledge lingering post-pandemic wounds and in no way address the questions, “pick up from where or move on to what?” If your view is anything like mine, the healthcare landscape (as well as the social and political ones) appears forever changed, and there is no “going back” and certainly no clear sense of what lies ahead.
It is during such times that I find a personal “pause” is in order – taking intentional time to reflect, reground, and recalibrate as I seek a sense of direction amidst the surrounding swirl. Yet “pausing” for many of us is challenging, threatening, and even counter intuitive. Afterall, we’re barely getting through the day now, so facing the prospect of having to “catch up” even more in the future seems ominous and therefore unattractive. For me, there is also a “fear of what I’ll hear” if I really pause long enough to listen. Perhaps I’ll find that I don’t like what I’m doing or who I’ve become or where I’m headed. What then!?
Such questions are the exact reason why we need to take such a pause. For some, this pause may involve taking extended time away from work. Though attractive, this option may not be a feasible one for many. That is the case for me, so my pause, for now, is a longitudinal one. I’m calling it my “Great Recalibration”. It started this spring with a “paddle the lake adventure” done in the midst of my work schedule, and consisted of me paddle boarding the entire distance of a local lake in sections, spending more than 30 hours and 100 miles alone with my paddleboard, the water, the natural landscape, and many questions, and it will continue with a one-week upcoming “staycation” spent at the same lake, processing what I “heard” during those many hours alone. Not surprisingly, my initial very simple question, “What now?”, has now multiplied to more questions and presently, few “answers.”
Next week, I’ll share more of what some of those questions have been and continue to be for me, and the surprising source from where they came. Until then, I would encourage you to spend some time reflecting on this question: “What question or questions would be important for you to answer about your life were you to create some time, space, and focus to ponder?” You could start with “What now?” If you’re unsure or uneasy about your answer to that question, perhaps a longer version of Rilke’s quote above will be reassuring for you. This quote sits on my desks at both work and home, serving as a reminder of the importance of “living” into my questions rather than too often trying to immediately find “the answer” – and giving myself “grace” in the midst of the process.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.” Rainer Maria Rilke