Just Say I Don't Know

Like the color red that Jonas saw on the apple in the colorless world of the book The Giver, we are meant to see more. In Lois Lowry’s work of young adult fiction, color was always there. The people just had to remember it, expand their narrowed consciousness and let it in. We have deeper ways of seeing, bigger ways of knowing that we have forgotten.

All of the solutions we seek, the resolutions we hope for, the changes we imagine, they are not out of reach. But they are in a place we completely overlook. They are right in our midst, just like the red apple, but obscured by the fog of what we think we know, what we are sure we are.

Just say I Don’t Know. Jump the old circuit of beliefs and conclusions your mind runs. You will start a new pathway. The fog will clear. You will see in color.

There is profound power in I Don’t Know. It is a 3 word opening to all that you really do know. And it is a simple practice you can do while washing your hands or while on your way to work. When you find yourself trying to work something out along the same rutted road your thoughts have traveled before, gently stop. Stop and say, “Hmmm, maybe I don’t know.” In that moment you throw the doors wide open to allow your consciousness to expand. And it’ll do the rest. It’ll rearrange your inner landscape so you can access your true knowing and then see clearly just how to proceed.

The esoteric, vague part of this process, the part that likely makes a lot of folks roll their eyes, isn’t the relevant part here. The relevant part is the simple, simple practice of saying, “I don’t know”. Intend to notice your rutted thoughtways. And when you do notice them say, “Well MAYBE this is different than I have believed. Maybe I don’t know.” It is a no commitment exploration that can have profound effect in your life and the lives of all around you. Try it for a day or a week. See what happens for you.