Uncertainty Is About Surrender

Uncertainty is not about mastery of control, but of surrender. The act of submitting to the unknown is about embracing uncertainty. I admire this quote by Robert Jordan because it speaks to the process of surrender and cultivating uncertainty as an ally rather than an enemy. 

"The oak fought the wind and was broken, the willow bent when it must and survived." — Robert Jordan

What appears to be stable, secure, and safeguarded like an oak can be broken. The oak took time and seasons to grow to its might, position, and potential. The willow’s growth understood flexibility and allowed nature to shape its growth. Neither tree is wrong nor right. It’s simply a perspective about growth. 

Feelings surrounding uncertainty seem to be associated negatively and often feed anxiety narratives. The perception of vulnerability looks raw and real. 

The fears and worries borrowed from today for tomorrow about what may happen and go awry create a lack of trust. Trust asserts that outcomes are left to an organic process rather than a performance based one that highlights productivity and efficiency as the ideal sense of order. 

Order is necessary as is productivity and efficiency, but order may not look like a machine. That order is based on what is needed for that time rather than what is planned for that time. 

What if we perceived order as surrender rather than mastery of control? What if the process was really about submission rather than striving?