August 2007 Newsletter
Online Issue # 16
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The Front Page
The Possibility of Emptiness
On midsummer days in the Midwest, when the temperature shoots into the 90s and the humidity hangs on and won't let go, it's easy to forget all about making our dreams real. Simply doing what needs to be done requires so much attention and energy. When a day like this stretches into another and then another, a person can feel like she's running on empty: not much appeals and any activity seems like too much effort.
Then one day the wind shifts and a cool front moves in: suddenly the temperature drops twenty degrees and the dew point returns to normal. That's all it takes. We venture outside, bodies relax, skin feels dry to the touch, and breathing is easy. Whatever felt wrong is so suddenly right. How can this be?
We marvel at the surge of energy and enthusiasm that returns to us. We actually want to do things again and we enjoy the doing. Just moving or being is such a pleasure. Now that our bodies are no longer preoccupied with the heat, we have our lives back and can focus our attention on our own thoughts and return to what we're creating—moment by moment.
Any number of things, not just heat and humidity, can cause us to feel depleted and on hold with our lives: disappointment, frustration, loss, grief, pain, exhaustion, rejection, illness, loneliness, resentment, depression, fear, stress....
We often know clearly that something isn't working, but feel powerless to do anything about it. Not knowing what to do, we try to wait it out and hope for a cool front to blow in and bring us back to where we were. Sometimes waiting works and before we know it we're back to normal.
But when days of waiting-it-out turn into weeks or even months, something else is probably needed. Somehow, we need to reconnect with what we're creating, moment by moment, or perhaps non-moment by non-moment. It's too easy to fool ourselves into believing that a moment, or a day, is really an insignificant amount of time, not worth much and not capable of amounting to anything. Yet, it's all we ever have: this moment, right now, and then the one that follows it to become—right now. It's these moments that join together in a mysterious, cumulative way to become our lives and the future we create.
Once we remember that each moment matters, the long-awaited cool front is on the horizon blowing our way. The emptiness of despair becomes the possibility of emptiness. Where we saw nothing we now see room for potential. Nothing has changed yet, except our perspective, but once that changes so does everything else.
Every moment is creating us by how we choose to be in it. Will we be agitated, bored, honest, allowing, resentful, appreciative, encouraging? Will our choice bring us closer to who we are and what we long for? Or will our choice alienate us from what really matters to us? And most important of all, will we even be aware that a choice was made and it was our own?
I wish for you one sweet moment filled with the truth and beauty of who you already are, followed by a lifetime of sharing the wonder of you.
With gratitude,
Laurie Mattila
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