Would you, if you could?

It's fitting that I end the year playing a game with my family that asks questions. It's great to play with kids and growns because you get such wildly different answers to questions like, If you could be one age for your whole life what age would that be? Or, If your skin could be any color that's not human what color would you pick, and what color hair would you pick to go with it?

I have spent the year posing a different question each week. I began wondering in January, How do you know who you are? The question that got the most opens was, Do you listen when you speak? I liked that one because it concerned one of my favorite tenets -- words matter.

The one that had the most clicks was What's New? I liked that one too because it was another list of random questions. Like I said a year ago, "I've got questions." The questions in What's New included Why are honeybees important? and Did you hear about an adorable new crab they just discovered? and Did you know we might have to rewrite our current physics? There were more too, so no wonder it got the most clicks.

The next most clicked-on message was in Is there intelligent life on earth? That one included a link to an amazing story by a truly gifted writer named Ted Chiang. The story is called The Great Silence and it's worth your time. It poses a wonderful question.

So, what has come of asking all these questions? The answer, of course, is more questions. And, why not? Sure, questions have answers, but, for me, the answer has never really been the goal. For me, and I hope for you, the joy is in the asking, the learning, the thinking and discussing and challenging. I definitely like knowing the answers but I think I prefer asking questions.

So, as we turn the calendars to another new year, my last question of 2019 is, Would you, if you could? Whatever that means to you, I invite you to just sit with it for 10 or 15 minutes. It's a new year. People will talk about what they want to do differently in January -- they always do. I invite you to give yourself space and time with that question.

Looking ahead, my wish for you and for me is keeping the spark of constant curiosity alive, savoring the experience of deeper learning, and sharing the joyful exploration of asking questions with a like-minded friend. May your year ahead be full of presence and wonder.