Why all the questions?
I’ve been known as the question asker for years. In college I had a fellow student recognize me from a 500-person class by saying, “Aren’t you the woman in my dinosaur class who asks all the questions?” I was. At times in my past I asked questions so I could learn the answers, and ultimately prove my worthiness by reciting the expected and correct responses (I didn’t know that’s what I was doing at the time but I know it now).
For many years, however, I’ve asked questions primarily to evoke people (not provoke, mind you). By this I mean that I’m an enquirer because I want to meet the real people beneath the masks we all wear. I want to draw YOU out, into the open, into the light, so we (you and me both) can revel in your brilliance and humanity. I ask questions with the hope of seeing who you are at your core. As a coach, friend, and fellow human, I’m likely to ask:
- What inspires you?
- What do you stand for in this world?
- What is your most profound fear?
- What dreams have you deferred or declined to follow?
- What do you love about yourself?
- What part of yourself has been the hardest to own or acknowledge?
And, of course, I ask myself these questions too. Knowing that my authentic self often is veiled from even my own eyes. For, if I do not know myself, it is difficult for me to make room for understanding you.
Through this blog (and my other one focused on weddings and committed relationships–I Do! I Do! the blog), my desire is to be in conversation with you. Asking you questions. Listening to your responses. Reading your questions. Offering my replies. I invite you to join me in sharing ourselves in this way—putting forth our wisdom, our wonderings, and our wonderful selves as we seek to better understand, and therefore, relate to, all those with whom we share our earthly home. Please join in and invite others into our circle.
2 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
| TrackBack URI
You can also bookmark
this on del.icio.us or check the cosmos
Shonnie, those are some tough questions. I notice that right now I can’t answer a few of them because I am angry at an immediate situation and I’ve blocked out the answer.
I do have a request. You discuss relationships very well on your blog. Can you write on the topic of forgiveness?
In Spirit,
Nneka
Comment by Nneka — September 28, 2006 @ 6:42 pm
Those are some really great questions. Gets me thinking about some hard answers.
Comment by Domestic Goddess — September 29, 2006 @ 9:38 am