Word Of The Year: Clarity

“Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?”

~Lao-Tzu

In 2019, I attended a retreat at the Monastery of St. Gertrude in Cottonwood, Idaho. The experience was unique and special and it inspired my March 2019 Profound Living essay, Grace Calling. That essay started with a quote from Thomas Merton, "Every moment and every event of every person’s life on earth plants something in their soul,” which at the time seemed especially relevant to my message. Now, one year later, I’ve found that it was even more relevant than I suspected. One of those moments at the monastery planted a seed in my soul which required a year to take root and flourish. But, root and flourish it did.

The retreat’s guiding words were “Clarity, Courage, Growth, Openness”, and I was all about courage, growth, and openness. Those were qualities I wanted to explore and embrace. But I just skipped right over the idea of clarity. I didn’t understand what that might be about and where it might lead, so I simply ignored it. That is, I ignored it until it refused to be ignored any longer.

Almost a full year passed, and then, as 2020 approached, I started thinking about my word of the year. As I searched, I found that this troublesome word “clarity” had been quietly lingering. And, unlike our first encounter, this time it would not tolerate being banished. I didn’t know what the lesson from this word could be, but I decided it must be time to welcome it, so I claimed “clarity” as my 2020 word.

Over the first month of this new year, I puzzled over the elusive idea of clarity. Why did it nestle in with such stealth? What could be the reason for its re-emergence? I thought the deeper message must be about trust - trusting yourself when the way is unclear. Because, for me, the way is never very clear. Clarity seems elusive and impossible. I believed that, surely, the message in this word must be about the acceptance of “unclarity”, and the faith required to move forward along a foggy path. Trust.

And then one of those random and beautiful and unexpected things happened. I attended a presentation by Jad Abumrad of RadioLab, and while he was talking about the podcast’s signature ‘silent pause’ he briefly showed a slide with a quote associated with Lao-Tzu:

Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear?

Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?

Jad didn’t talk about the quote, the words just briefly showed on the screen while he described the importance of moments of silence in the telling of a story. But, my heart fluttered, my breath caught, and I sat upright in my seat. Maybe the message in ‘clarity’ is not just about trust, but also about patience and stillness!

Maybe ‘clarity’ isn’t about seeing the entire path, but patiently awaiting the next step. And then trusting that step, no matter how seemingly small, and patiently awaiting with unmoving stillness until the next right action arises. Thankfully, I have eleven months remaining to explore this profoundly unclear word, clarity.

Recommended Resources

Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu (shared through thetaoteching.com)

Cover Photo Credit

Photo of Lan Su Chinese Gardens by Kelly Anderson