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Isn't it transformative to discover that making space for the unknown is a concept very different than making time for oneself! Having another cocktail or a spa treatment is what the world wants us to believe will remedy our lack of inspiration, but too many "treats" are just another way of chasing "success." I so appreciate this idea that there is an unknown past as well as an unknown future, both for us and for our art, that we would do well to leave room for. I remember a college music professor waxing lyrically that the final act of composing a piece of music is actually completed by the audience - each listener adding her own layer of meaning and emotion to the sounds she hears. How wonderful that the neither the end nor the beginning is up to us. We get the joy of playing and creating in the middle.

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"making space for the unknown is a concept very different than making time for oneself"... I hadn't thought of it that way but that is so true!

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Re: the alphabet, in order to have "Something" exist, you have to have "Nothing" exist, first. It's like the space that exists to put the creation in it. With no Nothing there's no room for there to be Something. In order to hear sound, there has to be no sound. That's why the beginning starts at the 2nd letter.

Anyway that's my story and I'm stickin to it. ♡

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It's a good story Yurii- the Kabbalistic rabbis of the 16th century would have agreed with you - they had a little problem because they believed that God was everywhere and in everything but they also recognised exactly what you just said. So they story of creation didn't make any sense because if God was everywhere and all encompassing where was the space for the world he was going to create? So they came up with the idea of Tzimtsum the concept that God contracted to make room for the world at his centre. Which is kind of what I am saying I guess (though I wasn't thinking of this idea when I wrote). In order to have room to house of create ideas we too need to make space inside us at our core.

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If God is all encompassing then God is the Nothing as well. Someone once explained it to that God is the space between your thoughts. The Yin and the Yang symbol is really helpful to visualize it simply. Both things are the same. One is also in, and of, the other. Another way to visualize it is on a spectrum. Light on one, dark on the other, but there's no solid line that separates them. That's the single most important thing most religions get wrong. They see God as separate. Heaven and hell as separate. Up and down as separate. There is no up and down in space. Another way to think about it is the science of cold and hot. Because of the way atoms and molecules work, you could create the coldest freezer in the whole of existence but it'll never be ALL THE WAY cold. Because the warm molecules are touching the outside of that freezer. Its all connected. Cold is just those same molecules moving imperceptibly slow.

But, in order to experience one side of the spectrum, the other has to exist. Yet its all one Whole. You create the silence. You create the space. You create the something. You create the sound.

Which, at its core means that you, too, are God. We are the creation and the creator. The Mater and Pater. Even when humans are growing they have the same genitals. One just decides to keep zigging while another decides to zag. Its not "out there". I mean, it is, but technically speaking, there is no "out there". There just IS.

That's how I see it. Not as a separate Being who makes the rules and can punish us on a whim. Its that belief or feeling that we're separate from God that causes all the problems. That one thing is what causes that feeling of abandonment, shame, guilt, fear, of being not good enough, of not having enough yadda yadda... (wait... is that a Jewish expression? Yadda yadda?) Just like it does if a parent abandons a child, it'll cause all those issues. Believing God judges us and we better obey or else be punished or abandoned in hell. Horse feathers. We create our own hell and our own heaven... right here. The human aka, "Something", is what we use to perceive with. When that disconnects, our energy and matter becomes part of the silence again.

I dunno if the way I see things fits into any religion out there or not. I was raised catholic and stopped believing in that by the 6th grade.

I think maybe I've been rambling. I dont have a tidy closing for this comment which is kinda a clue I've been rambling. lol so...

Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.

The End

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Very well written! Both and. No joy without sadness, either. That was colorfully portrayed in Disney’s Inside Out. I agree that seeing God as separate from self is a huge problem that continues in our sense of separation from our neighbors and from our enemies and from nature. I just watched Chasing Choral (2017 film) which shows what happens when we forgot that we are all connected and interdependent.

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Thanks Mary. I haven't seen either of those films but we are about to have a quiet cottage holiday break so that's given me somethings to watch via ipad in the 'snuggle down' evenings!

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Enjoy! But be warned, Chasing Choral does not have a happy ending.

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Can’t wait to hear about the retreat! I battle constantly with the idea that a good day has to be a productive day, really enjoyed reading your post, thank you 😁

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Well, you’ve finally tempted me to tiptoe into the water and set up an account here Helen. This is a wonderful read, and I thought that you might enjoy this article ‘on the other side’ if you’re still a member (recent changes have removed the quota of free reads each month).

https://christopherpjones.medium.com/the-art-of-slowing-down-5125bcc95a0

If not Christopher’s website is at https://www.chrisjoneswrites.co.uk; I enjoy his writing very much.

I saw a question from you over in the Connected Artists group about recommendations for people who combine writing with being an artist and I have put a couple that you might enjoy into my first recommendations here. Next to fill in some other blanks!

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