Humans tend only to awaken when they are out of their comfort zone. Wise, therefore, is the person who ventures beyond the borders of that which is familiar: moving from the known to the unknown and back. This is not a novel idea, rather, it is a basic pattern of reality, a Truth with a capital “T.”

For me this came in the form of the Great Promise given to Abraham some 4,000 years ago:

[1] Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
[2] And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
[3] And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Genesis 12:1-3, KJV

I remember reading this passage as an early teenager and thinking that if it worked for Abraham (which it did if you read the rest of his story), it could work for me. So, I left the country. I did everything I could think of to get outside of the patterns in which my life at the time was nested, leaving the former US military brat, Midwestern, upper middle class, suburban, white, Episcopalian upbringing in my rearview mirror. I traveled abroad and eventually spent extended times in Europe studying, working, and familiarizing myself with that which was foreign to me.

The “LORD” at this time came in the form of an inner voice that spoke only when I took the time to listen. There were other voices in my head that I have since learned to identify before acting on them, but the “still small voice” that Elijah heard when he was hiding in the cave was and continues to this day to be the one constant guided me through good times and bad.

In retrospect, leaving wasn’t easy. Familiarity brings comfort and predictability, but it can also breed a frustrating sense of tedium. I learned (the hard way) that reacting to the frustrating tedium of familiarity only deepens your subjection to it. Familiarity can, but need not, breed contempt. It only does so if you let it. In any case, learning to handle the frustrating tedium of familiarity is one of the greatest lesson a person can learn.

Leaving that which is familiar also plunges one into the darkness of the unknown initially. If you’ve ever tried to navigate a dark room－especially one that is unfamiliar to you－you know how strange and disconcerting this can feel. Knowing to expect this feeling is an important step, but so too, is learning how you tend to react to the feelings it spawns in you. Habits of reaction are simply that: habits. And habits can be changed, right? Over time you learn that the darkness of the unknown is an essential, initiatory phase in any creative cycle－one that you can come to rest confidently in and embrace wholeheartedly, rather than reacting to it.

Whether you conceive the source of your life as being God or Kindlier Nature, the keys to effective living are at hand. The “still small voice” is present with you, in fact it is a part of you (or perhaps better put, you are a part of it). Part of the great challenge in navigating the quotidian details of life relates precisely to this: learning to hear and move gracefully with that voice. The still small voice is in the details.

The oscillation between the known and the unknown is the means by which you grow, thrive, and experience fulfillment. It does not matter if you have a proclivity for familiarity or the unknown…the pattern of oscillation is the pattern with which reality is woven into being and you are not separate from this. The form of this oscillation is secondary to the spirit of it. You need not travel, leave your country, kindred or father’s house as I did to achieve this, but you must learn to be “in the spirit,” that is, to listen to that still small voice above all.

The Great Promise is there for you. You did not overcome the enormous odds stacked up against you－at conception, during the first nine months of your life on earth in the darkness of your mother’s womb, or during a childhood while being raised by imperfect adults－to live a life of tedious mediocrity. You are here to be a blessing: an impactful, meaningful, purposeful, colorful thread in the tapestry of life.