Doing nothing part ix: Trust in the slow work of God

Take reader questions for my next posts

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through some stages of instability—

and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;

your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,

let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don’t try to force them on,

as though you could be today what time

(that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will)

will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Give Our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,

and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself

in suspense and incomplete. — Teilhard de Chardin

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I haven’t written in the last six months, since my aunt/mom’s death. In the last six months, I haven’t done much of anything.¹ I’ve been treating it as a period of wu-wei, aka non-action, which I wrote about a year ago. Because I don’t have to work for money, I’m not on chronos time (aka where time is money). Quite frankly I don’t know how people with jobs and are raising kids have time to grieve. I’ve just been sitting on my couch, petting my dog, and consciously not doing anything. I’m just trusting the slow work of God.

But I’m sensing it’s time to rejoin the world; maybe restart the newsletter again. Has anything been happening in the world since December? I don’t really have anything to say write now, so I’ll take reader questions.

If you have a question or are looking for advice, send me a note. I’ll answer it publicly, so I’ll leave you anonymous.

Warmly,

Douglas

1. Not totally true. In the last six months I cleared out two homes. Moved into another one while it was still being renovated. Bought a car. Got hit by a semi-truck. Medical appointments. Went back east to Toronto to see my family and to Cincinnati to speak at a personal finance conference. Sold two homes. Had the stomach flu. Got in another car accident. Administering my aunt’s trust. So, life stuff.