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On Monday, our devotional was a tribute to the symbol and reminder that mist can play in our lives, both obscuring and revealing. One statement that I wrote but find difficult to believe sometimes is this: “Clarity is not guaranteed until you move onward, into the fog, deeper into mystery.”
Today’s question is: do you agree with that statement? Why or why not? Is clarity ever really guaranteed? Does mystery help or hinder us as we step forward? All thoughts and musings are welcome!
Long before he was formally declared a saint, I knew JH Newman was already one when I first encountered Lead Kindly Light and especially the couplet: Keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see / The distant scene, one step enough for me.
I think clarity is more of a gift than a guarantee. It's always welcome and moving when we find it, but we rarely find it as often or as quickly as we'd like.
If anything, mystery is more of a guarantee. And I'd include mysteries beyond the Christian concept of the divine mystery: the existentialist's mystery of existing without a truly ordered reality, the postmodernist's mysterious feeling that everything might well be random, and the smaller mysteries of knowing another person or place. These mysteries are more commonplace than deep clarity, and they vary by how hopeful they make (or don't make) us.
No. Being in the fog prevents clarity. There is a need for periodic distancing. not neccessarily to a "safe space," but to a place without mist or fog. Once squared away, one can re-enter the mist, or fog. Even then, clarity, though remaining the objective, may not ever be achieved. Just little flashes now and then, that are beautiful.
I would agree with the above comment that clarity is never guaranteed... however as humans it’s natural for us to want it.
Most times like when I’m grieving or needing answers because of that selfish tendency we have as humans I find myself completely forgetting about the mystery.
I have to try telling myself that some things are supposed to be mystical...left unanswered. 
I don’t think clarity is ever really guaranteed. But I do think peace/contentment of spirit is often found by our embrace of mystery.
Also, I love the symbol of mist. It’s an image that pops up really frequently in my poetry. I’ve especially been playing on the words mist/missed a lot. Like in this small verse I titled “missed”:
I associate clarity as the satisfying feeling I get when I'm in alignment with my highest self.
So I think clarity is always present and available to us, like our inner beings are, but it doesn't mean we can always receive it. In fact, when there is mystery in our lives (or fog in our minds), clarity can feel even more distant.
Your statement, however, has many layers to it! A fog or mystery *can* detach us from clarity, yet when we learn to embrace the mystery and move forward anyways, it releases us from worry. And thus... clarity!
I think it's a beautiful dynamic - mystery and clarity. Both are equally rich to our everyday experience :)
Long before he was formally declared a saint, I knew JH Newman was already one when I first encountered Lead Kindly Light and especially the couplet: Keep thou my feet, I do not ask to see / The distant scene, one step enough for me.
Still makes me a little teary.
I think clarity is more of a gift than a guarantee. It's always welcome and moving when we find it, but we rarely find it as often or as quickly as we'd like.
If anything, mystery is more of a guarantee. And I'd include mysteries beyond the Christian concept of the divine mystery: the existentialist's mystery of existing without a truly ordered reality, the postmodernist's mysterious feeling that everything might well be random, and the smaller mysteries of knowing another person or place. These mysteries are more commonplace than deep clarity, and they vary by how hopeful they make (or don't make) us.
No. Being in the fog prevents clarity. There is a need for periodic distancing. not neccessarily to a "safe space," but to a place without mist or fog. Once squared away, one can re-enter the mist, or fog. Even then, clarity, though remaining the objective, may not ever be achieved. Just little flashes now and then, that are beautiful.
I would agree with the above comment that clarity is never guaranteed... however as humans it’s natural for us to want it.
Most times like when I’m grieving or needing answers because of that selfish tendency we have as humans I find myself completely forgetting about the mystery.
I have to try telling myself that some things are supposed to be mystical...left unanswered. 
I don’t think clarity is ever really guaranteed. But I do think peace/contentment of spirit is often found by our embrace of mystery.
Also, I love the symbol of mist. It’s an image that pops up really frequently in my poetry. I’ve especially been playing on the words mist/missed a lot. Like in this small verse I titled “missed”:
A mist so gentle
proving surface tension’s
cling
feels like a hailstorm
compared to your
touch
I associate clarity as the satisfying feeling I get when I'm in alignment with my highest self.
So I think clarity is always present and available to us, like our inner beings are, but it doesn't mean we can always receive it. In fact, when there is mystery in our lives (or fog in our minds), clarity can feel even more distant.
Your statement, however, has many layers to it! A fog or mystery *can* detach us from clarity, yet when we learn to embrace the mystery and move forward anyways, it releases us from worry. And thus... clarity!
I think it's a beautiful dynamic - mystery and clarity. Both are equally rich to our everyday experience :)