So, as May winds down to the end, my son is at boot camp, my daughter off on a mission trip for five weeks and I have some time for reflection … I am blank.

I feel like I should not be blank, that I should be having some profound thoughts, but none will come.

Maybe I am a bit exhausted from the craziness that has been this month. Maybe I am emotionally drained from the number of major life changes with work and family.

Whatever it is, I am finding it difficult to write or to even think about my next steps.

I have had calls with my life coach, with a number of business acquaintances and friends. Which typically fuels my thinking and writing, but, no.

Blank.

Yes, having so many major life changes all in one month is hard. But this is where I typically find inspiration to provide insight to others who might be going through life change.

I have been told by a few that I am at a time where I should be quiet and listen.

Do these people even know me?

This is probably why God has so much trouble getting through to me.

However, for once maybe I should try to be quiet and listen. Especially since I am not sure where life will be taking me next.

I want to be open to the opportunities that present themselves, which does require some level of waiting, watching and listening. This is where intuition kicks in and points us in the right direction. Or at least it should.

I know that I am an intuitive person in some cases. However, in other cases I can be about as intuitive as a rock.

These are typically the times when my desire to “fix” a situation overrides my ability to sense (intuit) my next best move.

To a hammer everything looks like a nail.

These too are the times when I feel most blank and tend to get very hung up in my own head. And let me tell you it is one dark and ugly place! Filled with clutter, cobwebs, disarray, and little pockets of genius (ok, tiny pockets…).

This is when shutting up and listening to others tends to be paramount, if you can do it. Letting intuition come in the form of insight from those on the outside looking in.

I value this insight. Even at times when it makes me uncomfortable or is critical. I learn copious amounts from the information others provide. There are very few original ideas, but there are a massive amount of great insights that provide avenues to new possibilities.

I think new possibilities are what we should focus most on, simply because new ideas are so rare. You may argue that point with me, but I assure you it is semantics. Go back and read the great thought leaders and literature, especially self-help, from the 1600-1800’s. You will find we are dealing with the same issues today.

There are no self-help books from that period, you say! Hogwash! Sure there were, but they were all veiled in the cloak of the spiritual and religion of the early church. Both the problems and the concepts are essentially the same, just updated with current lingo.

It is when you begin to truly realize that the social and personal issues of that time period are no different from our own that you begin to understand how accurate Solomon was when he said, “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again: there is nothing new under the sun.” Ecclesiastes 1:9.

I believe the only thing that has changed is that we have only created complication on top of complication to the same troubles that befell our ancestors.

Thus, what I suffer from is just a highly complicated blankness….

… which brings me back to what should be a very simple solution – be quiet and listen.