The potter knows she plays with clay but works with space,
For the use of the bowl is its empty space.
It is the same with the room,
Made whole by the emptiness between the walls.
Remember that something is not everything.
Nothing is also essential.*
~ Lao Tzu
Without space there would be no substance. Substance is not everything, although our mind likes to think it so.
I remember a time when I was painting watercolors, and learning about negative space. This is the space or background that the subject is set against. Imagine choosing a tree to paint, and rather than painting in the tree, you paint the space around it.
Space must be considered in order to allow the subject to shine forth from the paper. Its brings harmony to the piece.
When we consider that nothing is essential, it turns inside out how we see things. I know it also reminds me how limited our thinking mind can be.
Nothing is essential.
*Braun Jr., John; Tzu, Lao; von Bargen, Julian; Warkentin, David. Tao Te Ching (Kindle Locations 211-215). . Kindle Edition.
Find Your Middle Ground 
Great post, Val. I choose to think of awareness as the lucid, empty space within which consciousness (the brain’s output of thingness) is revealed. H ❤
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Thank you Hariod for your kind support. I appreciate you sharing this perspective and opening us up to the empty space within us all 😊
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Thank you for providing a shift in perspective today.
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Shifts in perspective let the light in. Thank you Maria for seeing this 💛
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I love this, Val. Funny how limited our minds and thoughts can be, until someone or something enlightens us.
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So true Jennifer. Thank you ❣️let us always be open to new perspectives and ways to relating to the world around us 💛
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Great reminder! Thanks Val
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Thank you Donna 🙏
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Good post, Val. Nothing is essential!
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Thank yuh Nancy 💛🙏💛
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I love this! This concept feels profound to me every time I read anew.
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Thank you PD. Sit with it and see what insight unfolds. It’s multi dimensional with no right or wrong. 😊
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You are welcome. I agree, you are right!
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Nothing IS essential! If it weren’t for nothing, we could not experience ‘something.’ I love that you mention art, for when I produce a pastel drawing, I always begin with negative space first. Then the image emerges from that. And then there’s the Big Bang theory … 😉
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Thank you Bela for planting your substance into this post. Don’t take me to BBT though – one humungous awareness is all I can handle at a time ❣️
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I love thinking about this. Not being an artist it isn’t something I considered before. Maybe it’s true of poetry also. There is always something between the lines, though it appears to be empty space. The unspoken upon which the words are formed…. ?
Thanks for the thought provoking post, Val.
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Something between the lines that is unspoken, yet felt…. I love this Betty ♥️ Words come from the empty space within. We create them with thought and give them substance as they come into the world I’d substance.
Lots to reflect on. Thank you Betty 💕
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When there is space we can expand and see the path with new vision. Beautiful reminder Val 💕
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Thank you Karen. Space offers us so much 💕
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Thanks Val. Such a liberating feeling to pause and be with this centering thought… nothing is essential
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Thank you Shobhna 💛
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What a lovely post, Val. Nothing is essential. Therein we dwell…in quiet. I really love your presentation of this concept! Thank you.
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Thank you Carrie. “Therein we dwell..” is a lovely place to pause.
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Your posts are essential to me, Val. And this reminds me how silence in group therapy is as important as what people share.
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Ah yes…. silence and holding space. Thank you Ann for this perspective 💕
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Val, I so, so love your posts!
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Thank you Paul. I love it when you stop by and then think a while 💛
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thanks for giving
us some space, Val 🙂
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Thank you for your smiling presence David 💛
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This reminds me of the thought that without silence there can be no music. A lovely post, Val, and your artwork of space around the tree is stunning.
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Thank you Diana. The artwork is not mine … but it is so good. 💕
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i loved pottery and teaching it…this puts a smile on my face…thank you Val… 😀
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Perfect Hedi❣️thank you. xo
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Lovely post Val and useful in all life’s facettes ❤
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Thank you so much Irene❣️ I like your new profile picture!
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Thank you Val, the photo was taken in May this year, so the most new, as I have 🙂
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I think we are too quick to rely on our 5 senses and to dismiss what we cannot experience physically. Maybe we can be reminded here that in the greater scheme of things, ‘nothing’ came before ‘something’. Thanks for this lovely post Val.
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… and something then becomes nothing. Thank you for this thought Amanda 💛
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