Emptiness can be a good thing
Does your fuel
tank ever run empty? Is your life filled with places to go, things to do, people to see, goals to achieve..?
Are you cramming your schedule, home, head and belly until they are too full? Do you chronically over schedule yourself?
If everything is too full, you need to let there be room in your life. Maybe fill your day 2/3 full. Not all the way.
Maybe creating an empty space in your calendar, in your to-do list, in your life could bring you some clarity and some peace and enable you to breath, to think.
Think about these ideas:
That space between stimulus and response can save you from unnecessary pain. Mom told you to count to ten before responding in anger! It’s an opportunity to choose your response rather than just automatically reacting.
That space between the notes is what makes it music and not just sound. A note without space is one long sound.
That space between the words when you read aids your understanding.
That space within a vase is what allows a vase to be a vase. Th
e vase is not simply clay or crystal. What you must have in order to have a vase is empty, invisible space surrounded by material. Take a hammer to the vase and you still have all of the material, but no vase. As Wayne Dyer pointed out, you must have the silent, empty, invisible space in order to have a vase.
That space surrounding the particles that make up the cells in your body is what makes you a “vase” or person. Every molecule is similarly fashioned of particles circling nothingness. It is the very story of life.
So, today I wish you spaciousness, emptiness.
May you create moments of silence and serenity.
May you relish the empty, the not-yet-here.
May you let Winter do its thing and allow your fields to rest so that when Spring returns, you are ripe for growing.
2 Comments
Pat: You have very accurately described the importance of yin in our world. In Chinese philosophy, yin/yang are opposites that work together to maintain balance in the natural world. Yang has been said to be active and yin as passive but I have always felt yin should be defined as receptive. It is the space that is waiting to be filled such as a vase, a cup or even the womb. It is important to remember that yin/yang cannot exist alone, both are necessary. If one gets out of balance and does not yield when the time comes, it collapses into the opposite state. Because humans are part of the natural world, this is very important for us to keep in mind in all our relations.
Mary Kay, I really like your explanation that yin is not best explained as passive but rather as receptive. And your point about our need to maintain balance as people is well made!