Living with the Unknown

by John Herlihy

No denying that we live with the unknown,

Not knowing doesn’t make us feel uneasy.

The idea of the unknown need be no burden,

Certain unknown things we take for granted.

We give it very little thought and even less worry,

Yet it is always there as a ghost in the background.

Then the unknown begins to make us feel uneasy,

Then the unknown does become a kind of burden.

Mysteries we expect never to be rightly explained,

Mysteries we expect never to be wrongly explained.

An ambivalence in life that needs to be reckoned with,

We live most of our lives as if we would live forever.

As we age, then turn elderly, we know this as untrue ,

We know that one day we must give an accounting.

Yet we do things rightly or wrongly without a care,

Why does the sun go on shining even more brightly.

How such consistency in this world ever changing.

How natural law that never breaks, never changing,

That some days really feel like the end of the world.

That other days feel like the world will never end

Soon the unknown takes on the aura of a secret,

A secret only we know that nobody else knows.

A secret we hold within that we want to explore,

A treasured secret that if unveiled we will adore.

No secret that we live, breath, are self-aware,

Yet we often go thru our days totally unaware.

Past and future nothing yet or more to know,

What lies beyond the present moment unknown.

Petty unknowns that we don’t need to know,

Earthly unknowns that we don’t need to know.

Spiritual unknowns that we truly want to know,

Universal unknowns that we will need to know.

Some people think that belief can be deceptive,

Other people think that belief can be receptive.

A feeling when you don’t have it feels debilitating,

A feeling that when you have it feels exhilarating.

That nothing else matters but living to full potential,

Living in the present now the one thing essential.

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Copyright © John Herlihy

Monday 22 December 2025