Embracing Curiosity Over Comfort (Better than Normal 1) - Palm Sunday

So I’m (hopefully) going to be writing each day this coming week as a part of sharing my excitement about a new book coming out. My friend and podcast companion, MaryAnn McKibben Dana, is celebrating the release of her new book in just a few weeks - it is called Better than Normal: Virtues for an Off-Script Life. I read a pre-release copy a while ago and can say that it is a necessary read for the time in which we find ourselves. Here’s part of the description on bookshop.org

Better Than Normal serves as both mirror and map, reflecting the ways current systems fall short while charting a course toward genuine flourishing. For those ready to put down the script of normalcy and move into the radical possibilities of human dignity, this book is a catalyst for the collective work of transformation. Normal is a myth--and recognizing that truth might just free us all.

You can pre-order it now from bookshop.org as well as plenty of other retailers (both local and online). Click here for Bookshop’s link

In the book, she goes through six shifts from what is the “normal” to something more expansive and transformative. They are:

• Curiosity over certainty

• Courage over comfort

• Presence over productivity

• Authenticity over artifice

• Beauty over blandness

• Community over competition

So over the next six days of the Christian Holy Week, I am going to “play” with each of these shifts of what they spoke to me from the book but also how I expeirence them through the lens. Today, on Palm Sunday, I start with curiosity over certainty.

As I thought about this shift, I initially was thinking about macro photography and the ways in which getting curious about those tiny details that we often cannot see without getting close (and usually with a macro lens) is a way of experiencing this shift. But that changed when Scout and I went walking on Saturday morning. We went on one of our favorite trails but one that we have not been able to go on for over two years.

Two years ago, one of our local lakes was closed (and the beautiful trail around it) to undergo an extensive rehabilitation of the lake itself. Invasive plant species and algae had grown extensively throughout the lake and the only way that it could be eliminated was to literally drain the entirety of the lake to remove excess sediment that had collected. (Read about the project here). This trail was also one of the most beautiful trails in the immediate area during Autumn. But for two years, it was fenced off while the lake was drained and other improvements were made.

Until this week.

So, Saturday morning, it was clear and cool and I was able to walk to one of my favorite sunrise spots that I haven’t been to in a long time.

We walked onto a new over-the-lake path that had been built that will be a perfect place for people to fish and that also created what I am sure is going to be a reflective autumn photograph several months from now.

Both of us were pretty excited about this. I was excited to walk this path again and see what improvements had been made. Scout was also extra-sniffy almost as if she knew this place and was excited to take in the scents on this trail that she had missed for the last two years, including something right at the base of this tunnel that I had a hard time pulling her away from.

But there were some other wonderful changes that I had no idea were going to be there. There was another over-the-water path that was created at another part of the lake and surrounding it were what I think are going to be the foundation for some new marshy areas.

And the trail changed a bit as well at one point. One whole section of the path had been dug up with trees planted where the path used to be while a new section looped up in a new way (the new trail was outside the left frame of this photo).

And other improvements were made including some beautiful new spaces to simply rest and take in the beauty of the lake as well as creating a fully accessible boat launch area so that more people can enjoy paddling on the water.

And there was this spot that I am pretty sure will be a prime spot for some autumn photography later this year (along with the one I noted above).

It was a lovely 3 mile trek around the lake.

But where does this shift of certainty to curiosity come in and what does it have to do with Palm Sunday?

For me it was in the spirit of how I approached the new adventure we had ahead of us. As we started to walk, my (and I think Scout’s) sense was about experiencing not only what we had missed for the last few years but also an openness and excitement about the new. As I walked through that tunnel (photo above), I was excited to see what was around the corner and then was delighted to see what I think will be the foundations for new marshy areas along with the new-over-the-water path. There was a great sense of expectation and (yes) curiosity about what was ahead throughout the entirety of our time at the lake and also what it will look like in the months and years ahead. I won’t lie, I am already excited to be back there come Autumn to take in the beauty that this place has during my favorite season of the year.

I could have, however, approached it with a sense of being frustrated about the two years that we missed walking there and being cranky about the changes that were made. In fact, I was a bit cranky about the part of the path that had been dug up. That was one of my favorite parts as it was where I most often saw turtles and other wildlife. But it likely was changed to protect the lake from erosion and maybe for other reasons as well. My certainty of what I wanetd for myself and what I thought the way should be could have won the day but I am grateful that it largely lost out to curiosity and wonder.

In the story of Palm Sunday, we read of Jesus entering Jerusalem to crowds of people shouting out to him, waving leafy branches, and laying their cloaks on the road before him. But the thing about that procession was that it was imprmoptu - it wasn’t advertised for weeks ahead - it just happened. And it likely grew because people were curious - Why are people shouting? Who is this Jesus guy? What is he about? What is he going to do? What they would come to see over the next few days is one who engaged people in radically new ways while also saving some of his strongest words and actions for thsoe who seemed to be more about certainty than about curiosity. Their anxieties about Jesus and the ways that he lifted up wider understandings pushed them into a cycle that MaryAnn writes about in Better than Normal...

Instability breeds anxiety and the more anxious we are, the more rigid we become in our thinking. Anxiety decreases flexibility and our ability to learn.

I am grateful for a space on Saturday that affirmed curiosity and wonder and I hope to hold that sense through the days ahead of this week (and beyond).

Grace, Peace, Love, Hope, and Joy,
Ed

---