I’ve come to believe that the secret to peace, to authentic happiness and fulfilment is to live as much as possible in the space between. The space between sentences, between thoughts, between doing this and doing that. The space between before and after, between here and there, feeling and thought, thought and action.
I once knew a man who would spend time with me but never space – our time was good but also purposeful and efficient. Time has limits, an agenda and things to get ‘done’ yet space is just light and beautiful, rambling and soft. I used to long for space until I worked out how to create it.
In the past I have been guilty of giving people time not space and I regret it now – that Foo Fighters song ‘best of you’ rings in my head for all those wasted hours when I could have shared space with those I love as that was all they wanted with me. To my parents especially I’m sorry…I’m sorry time ran out.
The secret, it seems, is to squeeze into those spaces as much you can and stretch them as far as they can go. A little at a time, leave a little more unsaid, stay still a little longer, relax a little deeper – stare at the stars, feel the wind, hold the smile, clear the mind, just a little longer. Keep at it until that space opens a little wider, until it’s not so tight and it gets more comfortable to stay there.
Eventually, what I think we find, is that this space is the only real space there is. The rest – the words and acts, the past and future, the us and them, the busy thoughts – it’s all just stuff cluttering an otherwise wide open field of absolute serenity and limitless possibilities.
Space makes you feel free. Like a dandelion clock softly blowing in the wind, gently travelling to wherever it’s taken. Space is akin to the universe, nay mulitiverse, stretching out as far as the eye can see and far beyond….
Many of us just have little openings to work with at the start – brief reprieves from the noise and action and thought. So we have to work open those gaps one by one. One moment at a time. One pause at a time. One breath at a time.
And eventually, beautifully, it will break open enough to see the glorious miracle of life that’s been there in front of us all along.
