For as long as I can remember I have been fascinated by big questions, questions that seem capable of holding both the pain and joy that comes with being human. These questions have been more than a curiosity for me: they have been the stepping stones of my life, witnessing me along the path that has led to the creation of this project. They have been there in my most joyful moments, and present when I have been completely broken and lost. They’re everyday life, and the horizon ahead: an ever-unfolding journey in discovery of myself and my place in the world.
These questions are not new, but persistent in how they’ve captured my life and the broader human imagination: How do we live in ways that are honest to who we are? What does it mean to have this human life, in its challenge and its wonder? What do we need to be whole in this world? So far, my life has been an attempt to live out those questions in different ways. No matter my life experience, it has always felt like a journey that’s spiritual in nature: spiritual because it includes every part of me, and aspires to live in deep connection with life as it is.
Throughout this inquiry has been the sense that the world around me wasn’t asking the same questions. I yearned to live a life of substance, self-discovery, and truthfulness. I was curious about others and what we could learn from one another. By comparison, the world I lived in seemed disinterested in these things; instead, people were expendable and life was only as good as the amusement you could get out of it. I felt embarrassed and isolated, and began to doubt my choices. Was I on the right path, trying to live these questions? Was I willing enough to accept the awkward, uncertain space that comes with learning to know myself? Was that insecurity worth the attempt to give language to the things that felt bigger than me?
Living out your deepest questions is both beautiful and vulnerable: it asks you to exist on your edge, to seek more from life than being comfortable. The heart often breaks as one’s vision begins to clear. You realize that a life worth living has to include everything, which means befriending your hurt as much as your happiness. As you begin to connect with the things that you love and fear, you realize your responsibility to both. This is not easy, but it is authentic. We become held as we learn how to hold.
Despite the persistent doubting of myself, I could not shake the sense I wasn’t alone in the desire to ask these questions of life, to experience these things. We all want to be a part of something that includes all of us. We ask big questions because we see something of ourselves, personal yet undiscovered, reflected in them. There is something genuine that stirs when we turn our attention to them, nourishing a sense of how to live life in meaningful ways.
How do we do this? Our world today doesn’t offer many pathways. It shames us for being vulnerable, discouraging us from seeking below the surface of life. The big questions we ask ourselves are considered unimportant or irrelevant, and so we learn to dismiss them, or never try to ask them at all.
Despite this, I don’t think we can afford to dismiss these things, especially in such demanding and difficult times. The pressure of hardship is life calling us to ask for what actually matters, finding the courage to imagine unwritten futures and dreams undreamt. The complex reality of being human requires larger questions which can hold stronger connections, more thoughtful ways of considering how we want to live out this precious existence.
The Raft Project is but one pathway to examine these things, to hold the mystery of being human in a space of curiosity and openness. It is an attempt to gather the courage of asking together, demonstrating how depth and wonder can be encountered right where we are. At its heart is the belief that spirituality, another way of describing many of these things, is simply another term for discovering authentic humanity: our most genuine selves engaging in mutual discovery and empowerment.
I hope that within this space you find the inspiration and encouragement to discover your own sense of path: a way of life that is whole and true to you. In some respects, it is our most difficult journey, but also our most joyful. May the examples and stories encountered here embolden us to walk this road: so that we may live in ways that truly matter, expressing a more peaceful and harmonized world into being.
In gratitude,
Duncan Anderson
