The Freedom of Curiosity
Recently, I was attending a music theory conference and had a conversation with a colleague about playing by ear. "You must still identify as a musician then?" she said, meaning I thought of myself as a musician instead of music theorist. I paused for a moment and reflected, "I don't really think of myself as a theorist or a musician. I think of myself as someone who loves music."
Maybe it is just my brain, but if I think about being a musician, I think of all the things I would need to do to be a better musician. I need to practice more, of course, and I need to be stricter about the types of music that I listen to--my taste is eclectic instead of focused. This is useful in some cases, but in fact masks a larger truth--I'm someone who loves music, and sometimes I bust out instruments and get to play, and other times I'm torturing my children by having them learn about polyrhythm on the car radio.
My identity as a mother is something more fixed, but even that doesn't allow for a spectrum of mothering. I know people who mother entire families and do way more mothering than some mothers, who "aren't mothers." The label doesn't really provide much insight.
I have seen this at play in the group courses I have been leading for the past year and a half as well. Sometimes people come into the courses and say, "I'm not intuitive at all," or "I'm a little bit intuitive, but not like you." And in a couple months, as curiosity and asking questions replaces a fixed identity, these same people start hearing the Divine or find themselves guided more in their daily lives.
The truth is, I don't think of myself as "an intuitive," and many of you have heard me struggle to explain what I "do" because it changes every day. I do, however, think of myself as someone who loves connecting with God and people. I enjoy sitting with people, holding space, and connecting to the Divine, and sometimes people find that helpful.
There is great freedom in curiosity. What do you love right now? What sparks your interest?
~c
This Week’s Reflection
“The question isn’t whether it was good or bad. It happened. How can I grow from this?”
Featured Photo by Violet
This is my sweet daughter Sylvia enjoying a bareback ride on her beloved little pony Applejack. Applejack was started as a cart pony by an Amish guy in Indiana. A lady in California ordered him off the internet and unfortunately didn't know much about caring for horses. We rescued him in 2021, and Violet trained him to be a wonderful little guy, who wishes he were larger because he prefers children who know how to ride. Bareback rides are his favorite, and he loves to go into the lake and splash.