Yes. It's a small word, but totally chuck load of possibility! I've been reflecting on what it means to say "yes" -- and I've even discovered it's actually physically easier to say than "no" (seriously, try it right now). There are of course times when we "no" is not only appropriate but necessary.
The yeses I'm thinking of are more of the yeses into a new moment. Maybe it's the yes to take a new job that will take us in a new direction. Or maybe it's the yes to a relationship that seems to go against our prior assumptions. It might even be the yes to throw caution to the wind and try a new route home from work! I believe that even those small yeses like going home a new way can help us to be open to those bigger yeses!
I have been pondering the meaning of yes over the last few weeks that we've been doing our Motherhouse Road Trip series. In chatting with the nuns on air and off air, I've heard this motif of saying yes, even when not knowing the next steps -- or even what the thing itself is! One of our sister guests said that she had invited a sister to be in the audience of the live podcast. The sister immediately said yes, and then asked, what is a podcast? I love that story because I've experienced it with my nuns too -- that immediate gift of self in saying yes.
And that's exactly what "yes" is -- a gift of self. The person is saying she wants to be there for you, is going to be there for you, even if she doesn't quite understand all that it might entail! There is such a spirit of generosity in a yes, a sense of adventure and possibility. Although the sister's yes in this example was for a podcast, it also speaks to that bigger yes to sisterhood.
What's your experience of saying yes or other significant yeses?
Photo: Annunciation of the Angel to Mary, Wood Carving by Lamidi Olonade Fakeye
"Yes" is a beautiful word and when I say it internally, I can feel the difference in my body from when I say "no."