Have you ever looked back at a particularly chaotic season of your life and wondered why everything felt so uncertain? Zora Neale Hurston beautifully captures this rhythm of existence when she says that there are years in family life that ask questions and years that answer. To me, this means that life isn't a straight line of progress, but a series of ebbs and flows. Some seasons are defined by a deep, restless searching, where we find ourselves staring at the ceiling at 2: and wondering if we are doing enough, if our children are okay, or if we are even on the right path. These are the questioning years, heavy with the weight of the unknown.

In our everyday lives, these questions often manifest as the quiet anxieties of parenthood or the sudden shifts in our domestic roles. We might find ourselves navigating the toddler years, where every milestone feels like a mystery to be solved, or the teenage years, where the person we raised seems to be becoming a stranger. It can be incredibly draining to live in a state of perpetual inquiry, feeling as though you are constantly waiting for a sign or a resolution that never seems to arrive. It is easy to feel lost when the map of your family life feels blurry and undefined.

I remember a time when I felt completely adrift, much like a little duckling lost in a thick fog. I was facing a season where everything felt like a giant, unanswered question mark. My house was a whirlwind of changes, and I couldn't tell if I was building a foundation or just watching things crumble. I spent so much energy trying to force the answers to appear, trying to fix things that weren't even broken, just evolving. It wasn't until much later, looking back from a place of much more stability, that I realized those difficult, confusing years were actually preparing me for the beautiful, clear answers that followed. The answers didn't come from solving the problems, but from surviving the uncertainty.

There is a profound comfort in realizing that if you are currently in a season of questions, it is not a permanent state. The fog will eventually lift, and the answers will reveal themselves in the quiet moments of a new season. You don't have to have all the answers right now; you only need the courage to keep swimming through the mist. As you move through your day, try to be gentle with yourself during the uncertain times. Take a moment to breathe and trust that the answers are already on their way to you, waiting for the right season to bloom.