PEBBLE
The ability to ask beautiful questions is one of the great disciplines of a human life. And a beautiful question starts to shape your identity as much by asking it as it does by having it answered.
~David Whyte, shared by Rev. Emma in Mindoro, WI
BOULDER
Questions are very important, often times more important than answers, because a question is a horizon, a direction toward which to unfold. And if one feels that one has the answer, then one isn’t moving forward. But if one is approaching a question, one is attentive, alert, seeking, opening one’s self, and waiting for what is be shown.
~Pir Zia Inayat-Khan, shared by Julie in Cincinnati, OH
PONDER
If you ever have dinner at our house, you may notice a stack of cards sitting on the table. They aren’t playing cards, but a deck of icebreaker questions / conversation starters. After we finish dinner and before it’s time to clear the table and transition to whatever is in store for the evening, we pause and draw a couple cards so we can pose questions to each other. Sometimes it’s just a few minutes, other times we’re still sitting there and chatting an hour later. And even though we’ve been together as a couple for over a decade and shacked up together almost seven years, I’m consistently surprised at how many nights a week one of us ends up saying, “I don’t think I’ve heard that story before,” or “How I did NOT know that about you?”
A few days ago, a long time rippler reached out with a favor. She’s going on a road trip with friends and wondered if I had a list of questions that might help keep the conversation interesting and lively. I had a little extra time on my hands, so I shuffled through a bunch of the question decks Jamie and I have gone through over the years and pulled questions I thought were particularly useful and/or fun. I found almost a hundred good ones, and then asked ChatGPT to help me sort them into different levels from initial chats to deeper dives. You’re welcome to peek at the list I came up with.
We’ve explored the power of question questions before (see Ripples #1319: Curiosity & Questions and Ripples #926: Good Question). It’s still true for me that Beautiful Questions are often doorways to adventure. They allow me to get to know other people, and they often help me understand myself a little better, too.
If you’d like to have a fascinating and fun adventure this week, I dare you to keep a few Beautiful Questions on hand for the next time you’re connecting with someone you’d like to know better. If you need additional inspiration, you’re welcome to peek at a Compendium of Questions I’ve been compiling. You may also enjoy dipping your toes in our Sea of Inquiry that my buddy Marc whipped up for easy for access to questions on the fly.
I’ll close by posing one of my favorite Beautiful Questions: ARE YOU IN?
Peace,
Paul