Can you trust the void?

Autumn is well and truly here! As I look out of the window I can see the leaves littering the garden – nature’s waste is so amazing – all the goodness from those rotting leaves goes straight back in to nurturing the very trees they have been falling from.

It’s a beautiful reminder of how amazing mother nature is – nothing wasted, nothing out of place, just the seasons cycling around again and again and again…

So what are you carrying, afraid to let go of, afraid of what will happen if you do…?

Can you trust to nature’s cycles to take you beyond the pain, the grief, the what if’s, the how it should have been, all those stories you tell yourself?

In Native American wisdom there is a word for this place of letting go – it’s called the sacred void. It comes after projects are complete, goals are achieved, events have taken place. It’s the place of ‘now what next???’ It’s uncomfortable and we hate it – because our culture only teaches us to look good, be busy, achieve, and endlessly go on to the next thing… oh, and not to ever feel those difficult feelings!

We meet the void in grief, in loss, sudden change, endings, in menopause or death or when something comes naturally to a close. It’s the winter in our own lives, when it seems all our leaves have fallen and we shiver with the bare branches and lack of light. We meet the void when on the outside we may look like we have it all, but inside we feel we have nothing.

But go through the void with self-kindness and compassion and curiosity, and we find new life, inspiration, new connection. We wake one morning and find gratitude for just being here, for this breath, and this one, and the next. This is freedom. There are new goals, and life has purpose and meaning again. Just like the snowdrops peering through the depths of winter – tiny green fingers of life. We need to have faith that our own lives can follow these ancient cycles, and be enriched by them.

You feel the depths my friend, and then come spluttering to the surface, alive.