Someone recently asked me a question about something and I didn’t have an answer to their question. While I’m not unfamiliar with ignorance, it’s been a while I told someone, “I’m sorry, I don’t know.” It was a work-related practical matter that I could find information about, so the not knowing actually was more like not knowing yet. I did what I had to do to acquire more information about the topic to follow up on the question I was asked. But that moment of not knowing struck a chord that I want to lean into.

Journaling on the topic and experience I had, I wrote, “the beauty in not knowing is the opportunity it provides to know. It can be a call to action to learn something new. It’s also a reminder that there is always something to learn. Unknowingness paired with curiosity can lead to great outcomes. Ignorance paired with willingness to learn is humility in action.”

This makes me think of a piece I had written in my book, The Return:

As I further reflected on this topic, I realized that it has layers to it—and that makes it even more interesting to expand on.

Not all types of ignorance can be immediately solved. Some unawareness can be resolved with new information and some learning, while others tend to ask for trust. It’s important to know the difference and what to do in each case.

On a very practical level, some ignorance can easily be resolved. All you need is to educate yourself. You know, read a book on the topic, look up information, ask someone who knows more, take a course, watch a tutorial—these are all forms of educating ourselves.

Then there is the other, more complicated form of unknowingness: not knowing how things will turn out. This type of ignorance asks for trust and action.

I wrote in my last piece, Construction Work is Messy, that it’s not our task to know the details of how our lives will look in the future. All we must do is show up and place the next brick and trust that we are building something lasting. But besides “the future”, if we were to bring that principle to the here and now, sometimes we are asked to trust in the unseen and the unknown’s capacity to become seen and known in no-time.

To make this even more personal, I’ll be very honest with you as I’m finishing this post: I had no idea what to write about for today. I knew that while I may not consciously know, on a deeper level I know what to write about. But where to begin? In my case, I wrote it down. I literally wrote that I kept hearing this voice saying, “I don’t know what to write about” but I refused to believe it. I spoke life and trust into myself: “the day is still young, so I’m hopeful, I’m optimistic, that I can still write an offering. Maybe with some delay in its delivery, but I believe I can still deliver today.” You see the trust in action here? I trusted myself that I do know, and I trusted that, despite feeling uninspired, the words would come to me. And indeed, the words came to me during that same journal entry. I trusted my creativity. I trusted inspiration. But most importantly, I trusted myself.

Because I trusted myself in spite of my unknowingness in the moment, and I took action and refused to believe in the limitations my mind was trying to impose on me, you are now reading or listening to these words.

But the ultimate question is: will you believe your ignorance or your capacity to know what you did not know?

With love,
Jun 💜

P.S., you can get my book here!