Day three: The Art of Nothingness

A few years ago, in my previous circuit, I was talking to one of the lay preachers who was also a Quaker. She told me about a Quaker idea she had come across; The Art of Nothingness. I found myself thinking about that yesterday. Every day of my ‘normal’ life I am doing something. I’m either reading and I become aware of all the books in my library that I haven’t yet read, or I’m working on my Apocalyptic project, that will take years to complete - I’m at 103,000+ words so far, my dissertation which doesn’t start till January but I want to get ahead of, or there is something that needs to be done in the garden. Then there are sermons to prepare, visits to be made, meetings to organise and attend. Being off sick means I can still read and write, but the tiredness needs to be dealt with first. So I tried practicing the Art of Nothingness yesterday and it’s not easy. I remind myself of that saying: What is life, if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare?

I’m trying!