The Fullness of Nothing
“I love to talk about nothing. It’s the only thing I know anything about.”
With four part-time jobs and a toddler, most every day is scheduled out somehow. School, work, social commitments, family obligations, or even just errands to run and catch up on. This morning, I taught my lessons until one o’clock. After my last student left, my husband asked me what we had on our agenda for the rest of the day. I replied, “Nothing.” He repeated, “Nothing? Could that be true? It has been months since we have had nothing planned.” It is true, most days we are running here, there and everywhere, and when we don’t have commitments to uphold, it is groceries or laundry or some household chore of some kind.
However, today, we did nothing. Well, we actually did a great deal of things. I played the piano for a bit, recorded some songs. Isabella played a little, sang, danced, we listened to music. Isabella helped me bake cornbread. Joe went for a run. We still kept busy all day, but busy doing nothing, talking about nothing and everything with our toddler. I even got my daughter to meditate with me for a few minutes. She sat criss-cross applesauce, and took a few breaths in and out. These precious moments are so adorable and wonderful.
One of my favorite TV shows to watch when I was younger was Seinfeld. The comedy show about “nothing” that aired for many years on NBC, featuring Jerry Seinfeld and his close friends. The joke was the show was about everything. They would take even the slightest gesture or remark and make an entire thread out of it, magically running through the whole segment, usually culminating full circle. Nothing, everything; within the framework of nothing, you have everything, because you have freedom. Nothing creates space, and space creates freedom. The freedom to create, the freedom to explore, to feel, to simply be. Many people think the color White is nothing, an absence of all color. However, it is actually the opposite, it is all colors added together. There are so many colors, that when all combined they create white, a spacious, clean slate. Nothing is everything.
That was my day today, we did nothing, yet we did everything. I got to play music, dance and sing with my daughter. Cook, bake, meditate, read, ponder, love, relax, enjoy and have fun. My husband and I even found a few stolen moments to hug and be affectionate towards each other. Today was a simple day, and in it’s simplicity I found joy, happiness and peace. My schedule was empty, but my day was indeed full.
Tomorrow, I do teach again in the a.m., and we might have to run an errand or two. However, Monday is a holiday, and right now the schedule is clear, open for anything, or maybe nothing…
Here’s hoping…
