"Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves."
Rainer Maria Rilke
I struggle often with the unresolved. It is easy to get caught up thinking about the end result, the final product, the outcome rather than the process itself. The urge to plan is strong, and while planning and strategizing is important, too much of it can strangle your progress.
What I love about this quotation is that is does not try to offer a distinct solution or suggest that you must rid yourself of the unresolved questions. Rather, it suggests that you have patience with them, and have patience with yourself. Even the push to 'love the questions' comes with the word 'try'. These are small things, but they remind me that it is all a process.
We cannot expect ourselves to change instantly or to never think about what an outcome will be. However, we can work on thinking less about the unresolved questions and give ourselves a break when we do as well as work on loving the questions and the process.
The ability to pursue an endeavor purely for the joy of discovery is something that children find very easy but adults find difficult. We need to develop the instincts of play, the art of wonder. And although we once knew how to do it well, it must be practiced and nurtured, not expected to appear.