“Life isn't something you can give an answer to today. There is nothing more delightful than planting flower seeds and not knowing what kind of flowers are going to come up.” Milton Erickson

This quote resonates for me as it allows me to take permission to not know and let come. I can have thoughts about the future and at the same time hold them lightly. When I do this fully, I find myself in the flow of life. This has been particularly useful as I’ve contemplated where I live and how I work. 

Jan Jacob Stan and originally Bert Hellinger talks of two types of future. One that is planned, our ideas, dreams and wishes for the following years, the movement coming from within, usually created as a friendly type of future. The other is the emergent future that approaches like a tsunami, coming whether we like it or not, with no clue what it will bring other than it will include both prosperity and crisis. It can be a transformative process; when the outgoing wave meets the incoming wave and we are prepared to meet it and welcome it fully, where the emergent future might be different from the planned future, and we are able to agree with the world just as it is. Change starts with agreeing to and acknowledging things just as they are.  

I use this systemic principle with clients where they are contemplating change by describing the concept of a planned and emergent future. It enables them to focus on their own aspirations and at the same time allow the future to meet them, knowing that much is outside of their control and preparing them also to let go and let come.