Nothing is Everything

Everything is nothing

Visual images created and licensed by Sasha on Shutterstock using DALLE-E 2 and EXAONE.

A little yin, and little yang.

Most people are very, very, very busy.  

There is a strong temptation to fill slack periods of time up with something, anything.  

For example, most of my life I’ve felt the need to do some activity at the end of the day, whether it is reading something, watching something, or performing a task.  

Being productive.  

There is nothing wrong with being productive when performing an important task, of course. But staying pointlessly busy to avoid nothing is a tendency I think most people living in our world have. 

We are trained for it.

Doing nothing can make you feel like you are nothing, that you are lazy, bad, or pointless.   

Lately, I’ve started doing nothing and I’ve learned that it really is something. Doing nothing in the evening when I’m done writing, reading, and completing my other activities is ideal. The dishes are done, everything is handled so those immediate tasks or chores are not distracting me.  

After I have been thinking, writing, reading, researching, and using my mind I do not want to relax by reading or watching something.

I want to do nothing, and this is new for me.   

It is becoming a huge gift. In that hour or two I just relax and enjoy being alive. Of course, there are things happening, but they are subtle. The breeze from the cracked window on my arm. The sound of the street down below. The feeling and being of my own mind and body.  

The pure, perfect power of being alive and at rest in that very moment, the present moment.  

It is a beautiful thing.  

It is a rest for my mind. 

I can feel it stretching out and expanding deliciously. 

A busy, scared girl  

My whole life I have been so busy, and troubled by deep things that I did not have the courage or time to face.  

Today, spending time alone doing nothing is kind of a sweet rebellion that I am falling in love with.  

Sure, challenging thoughts, feelings, and memories do arise, but the space I have allowed makes it possible to face them calmly and still return to my gentle, silent, rocking drift. It is neither mindless nor mindful. It is not for part of me, but all of me. 

That means not just my full self, body, and mind, but all of me, all I have been, all I have known, and who I am becoming because of it.  

Morning time has always been easy for me because it is so active and full of energy, possibilities, and choice. 

Starting, thinking, going.

Nighttime is a different vibe. It is passive and still and yet rich and full. 

Stopping, resting, absorbing.

I have been using the concept of yin-yang in my story and my writing, and it is starting to make more sense in my life as well. Chinese philosophy has a beautiful philosophy and practice for these interconnected halves together in whole form, and they also created the beautiful symbol.  

But the idea is eternal, present in everything we do and how we do it.  

I am so glad to be discovering and inhabiting the yin side of my existence and looking forward to bringing the two interconnected parts together in my whole life.  

I have written and thought a lot about breaking free from endless yo-yo of duality, and I believe this is the way.

Yin-yang is interconnected, and when you look at the symbol you see how the other side is always reflected and present.  

What do you think about duality, which focuses on difference and separation, and yin-yang, which focuses on interconnectedness and wholeness?  

I know which one makes sense to me.  

Thanks for reading!