“The objects I chose were designed to hold something, but I didn't
fill them up. They remained empty. They were little symbolic shrines to
thirst.” Margaret Atwood
Emptiness is a scary word. Void, nothingness all evoke images of desolation. Unfulfilled desires, broken promises, abandoned dreams, the gaps in our lives are what ironically fulfill us. If we look around us, our life is full because of emptiness. Even sentences would have no meaning if there were no spaces between words and there would be no music without the pauses.
These empty spaces that we have in our life define us - they are a huge part of our identity. In our own weird way, we believe that to be complete, to have a fulfilled life, there should be no voids, no gaps, no emptiness. Yet happiness has no meaning if we haven't experienced sadness. Being with someone has no meaning if you have never missed them in your life. You cannot experience joy of being with someone, without understanding the strings of empty dreams tugging at your heart.
I personally, don't like the feeling of emptiness -the voids at times become aggressive and swallow the very existence of your core. Wise people know not to fill in the voids and also know how to set the boundaries for them, You are a composite of what is and what isn't and understanding the importance of both in your life is what wisdom is all about.
Embracing and loving our self includes learning to accept and appreciate all the voids in our life. Maybe at a certain level, our journey is trying to fill the restlessness that is created by the emptiness in our lives. It takes a lifetime to be aware of our emptiness, and only some are able to let go of the restlessness that comes with our struggle to fill in the vague empty spots in our lives.
No comments:
Post a Comment