“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. 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.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

This poem is striking to me in its simplicity and truth. For many of us, it’s so easy to tangle up our energy in trying to solve questions that need to be lived instead. I had been formulating an idea for a New Year’s (January) retreat when I saw this poem and realized it was a perfect fit for the day’s focus.The retreat will be a silent mindfulness meditation retreat, but there will be instructions on how to work with unresolved questions in the midst of the  practice. The approach can open us up to a much deeper clarity and wisdom than we can achieve trying to resolve our questions by figuring them out.

The retreat is scheduled for Saturday, January 28 at the 12 South Dharma Center. For retreat details, go here.