The Wisdom of Uncertainty

Speakers: Rev. Kurt Hoelting
Worship Leader: Ruth Richards
Special Musician: Heidi Hoelting

In a time of cultural and political upheaval in the United States, Kurt will draw from his newly published book Apprentice To The Wild to explore the spiritual benefits of uncertainty as a posture of heart and mind in the face of an always unknown future. Zen advocates the practice of “Beginner’s Mind”, or “Don’t Know Mind”, as a more realistic, and open stance in the face of what we cannot know about a future that is always outrunning our capacity to know in advance what shape it will take. Rooting ourselves in the practice of presence, while choosing to “not know” what the future will bring, brings us into a more realistic alignment with the nature of reality itself, which can never accurately predicted or pinned down ahead of time. From such a stance, we remain open to surprise, and available to the fresh currents of creativity and joy Kurt Hoelting grew up by the shores of Puget Sound, working summers as a commercial fisherman and wilderness guide in Alaska for fifty years. A graduate of the University of Washington and Harvard Divinity School, he is an ordained United Church of Christ minister and Zen student, who has blended his love of wilderness exploration with an equal passion for exploring the “wild within.” A mindfulness teacher in a variety of contexts, he served as Head Guide with Inside Passages, leading mindfulness-based sea kayaking expeditions in the Tongass region of Southeast Alaska. He makes his home on Whidbey Island.