Confusion is the gateway to breakthrough

Ava Osbiston and Lucy White
2 min readMar 15, 2021

There’s only one way out of confusion

And that is clarity.

Allowing ourselves not to have answers

Is where new synthesis happens.

There’s usually some

challenging emotion with it

Unsafety

Frustration

Annoyance

Things should be clear

and when they are not

I’m reacting to it.

Not knowing is different from confusion

There’s potential

I can’t draw a conclusion yet

I accept and rest in that.

Confusion is an active state

Of being in distress

By lack of clarity

And trying to make things clear.

Is discomfort the gateway to breakthrough?

If I’m uncomfortable

Is there something to learn?

Struggling with something that is unclear

Can lead to a breakthrough.

Sitting with what is unclear

Can also lead to breakthrough.

Perhaps we are less used to doing that.

It’s like wriggling in a bog:

You just get more stuck

And tired.

I can’t answer this right now

So I’m just going to put it down.

Break through.

Some barrier or boundary that needs to be broken.

The quickest way out is through.

Relief.

Bursting out through a frozen lake.

Release.

There’s a tension in confusion

Between how things are and how we wish them to be.

There’s energy required to be confused.

Efforting to try and get clarity.

“Someone has to know the answer out there!”

Or maybe I just need more time.

Or maybe there are multiple answers

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Ava Osbiston and Lucy White

We are two friends collaborating to bring you our exploration of Dragon Dreaming wisdoms through illustration and creative writing with a new ‘card’ each week