Curiosity
“Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back!!”
Anonymous
Building curiosity into your spiritual practice
As this early 20th-century saying implies, an enlivening satisfaction can be had by satisfying curiosity. The abbreviated warning “Curiosity killed the cat” probably never stifled curiosity, because the truth is that curiosity motivated the cat just as curiosity motivates people—at least people who are fearlessly self-confident.
What holds some people back from satisfying their curiosity is a fear of the unknown. Yet curiosity has empowered explorers of every kind.
It was curiosity that motivated sailors of long ago to travel out of sight of land. Imagine how frightened they must have been, not knowing whether they would fall off the edge!
Scientific understanding advances only because of curiosity.
Inventions improving the quality of physical life are inspired by curiosity. This is how humanity evolves and nations develop.
Curiosity is the stimulus that promotes a creative response.
Curiosity drove the westward expansion of the United States. While replicating Lewis and Clark’s westward travels, William Least Heat-Moon contemplated a favorite quotation from Alastair Reid: “Only the curious have, if they live, a tale worth telling.”
The “if they live” part may be off-putting, but only to those immune to wonder. In those special wonder-struck moments, we become as curious as a cat—and we truly live.
Curiosity fuels creativity
Curiosity and creativity are paired like two people on a tandem bike. Curiosity steers creativity. Creative artists are driven by curiosity.
An absorbed artist will forego sleep to work with intense curiosity on a composition, to see how the image held in mind will manifest in reality. That reality is then shared with others, sparking creative curiosity within them. In this way, artistry reaches out to inspire others to manifest beauty.
From the mundane to the magnificent, from preparing a meal to landing on the moon, curiosity is the stimulus that promotes a creative response.
Curiosity fuels the drive for personal growth and cannot be stifled. If ever you feel stifled in reaching for a goal, understand that your innate curiosity will uncover a way out of confinement.
When curiosity calls for growth
Let curiosity call forth your creativity to be of service in finding solutions. Like a mischievous cat or a river irrepressibly bound for the sea, curiosity will make a way over, around, or through any barrier.
Curiosity is Spirit knocking on the window of your soul, saying, “Take a look at what you could be doing!” Because it is Spirit delivering the inspiration of curiosity, we have nothing to fear by following through.
If ever you grow curious about why you do not seem to be “making it” in life, explore your consciousness in search of attitudes, thoughts, and feelings that could lead to self-sabotage. This inner scrutiny could be as scary as sailing out of sight of land, but you need not worry about becoming lost or falling off the edge, for creation has a forgiving design.
Exchange worrying for wondering how to be on the cutting edge of quality living. Your inner guide or Spirit reveals the way when—with fearless curiosity—you seek it.