The next right step

Last week I wrote about bowing to our inner wisdom in cat pose. As I wrote, I was in a hotel room processing a college visit we’d just had with my son. His senior year has gone smoothly, the applications were submitted, multiple acceptances and several nice scholarships. Now we were visiting the places he’d been accepted, many hours from home and it was becoming real.

It seemed like we were asking the right questions, but I was noticing little things that felt out of sync. Something seemed off. Were these my mother worries about her child leaving for college or legitimate red flags about this being right for my son?

In life there are crossroads. The expected ones, graduating from high school or college, getting married, getting a new job and the unexpected ones, losing a job or a relationship. With the expected ones, there are decisions to be made and typically some fear about what’s next and making the right choice.

I could see in my son’s inquiries the seeking, similar to what I had done when I was younger, for some answer or definitive guide for which path to take. Uncertainty can be terribly uncomfortable. I remember believing everyone else knew where they were going and that one wrong choice might mess up my life beyond repair. I had not yet learned to follow the quiet whispers of my inner wisdom.

What have I learned to be true? Yes, every choice has an impact. Yes, uncertainty is uncomfortable for almost everyone. And yet, it is also an invitation to gather your courage, sit and listen to what’s inside and find the deepest riches.

What if it was simpler? What if it was about just the one next right step? What if we were supported to seek and cultivate our inner wisdom, about the big and small decisions. What if we are our best guide to our fullest authentic life? Not the life, expected by our parents, or anyone else. A life where every step were an inquiry, discernment and or adjustment along our path, similar to sailing, where it’s never a straight line.

We will be visiting the rest of the colleges and pausing with our son. He needs the time to cultivate his inner wisdom, to dig deep, lean into the uncertainty with courage, trust and ease, to find his own next right step.

Is there a place that feels out of sync for you? Can you say yes to that invitation to awareness? What would it look like to pause, listen and find your one next right step?