On White Space

My mother did water color paintings. She always left “white space” in anything she did. It strikes me that the best spiritual writing leaves plenty of white space. Room in which to feel the vibes of the writer and his or her subject matter. It is just as important what you don’t write as what you do. Each opposite is shaped by the other, after all.

I write daily and it is like breathing for me. It’s effortless. It’s the white space around my words that is hard. I could add a giggle or a tear here. Inference is so important. I live my life around it. And so do you. We can’t go around explaining every detail of what we do, so many things are inferred.

Like I just feel the need to leave Facebook for a while. There is white space around that sentence. The need for privacy, distance, contemplation, deeper connection that can be had on Facebook.

Around the need to leave is the opposite need to stay. To hang out with hundreds of people hanging out with other hundreds of people. In real life I wouldn’t be caught dead doing that. (Infer tear or giggle.) I wouldn’t go up to my neighbor and say “Like!” And she wouldn’t look at me and say, “Comment.”

God is not on Facebook. He really isn’t. If He were, He would have designed it better and would not have cared whether He made money on it or not.

Ego is on Facebook. The ego that loves selfies and must have the latest of the latest.

Ego talks about enlightenment as if enlightenment could be Liked or Commented on.

Blogging is not the real thing, either. Egos do that, too.

Nothing is real, ultimately, because Everything is real. And Nothing and Everything are opposites. Who knows that?

Beats me.

Vicki Woodyard