For twelve years, I have written a free email newsletter which arrives in people's mailboxes every Friday. It's called Seeds. Each Seed is a few paragraphs on some spiritual aspect of life. To subscribe, click here.
Anyway, as of last Friday, I have no more Seeds written. Oh, I have the next 26 planned. Made up each file, put them on the Seeds Inventory list, all ready to go, but I have not written them.
Why?
Because it's good to be empty.
My usual pattern is to write Seeds twice a year. It's a mind-set of sorts -- similar to writing jokes. I have to be in the right space. The spaces I make for Seeds are the week between Christmas and New Years Day, and the weekend of Fourth of July.
Now I could have written these next 26 Seeds over the past month since I planned them, and even though I opened the file for Seeds 27 several times, I did not write them.
It's good to be empty.
Very good.
I grew up with a mother born at the tail end of the Great Depression. Empty meant hungry to her. There was always enough food in our house for a week's meals even when she thought there was nothing to eat. Empty wasn't safe. But that's not so for me.
It's good to be empty.
There are writers who don't feel this way. Certainly in my novel-writing, I never finish one that I don't start the next one immediately. That way I'm always in the middle of the next one. (At this moment, number eight!) But not with Seeds.
I like the idea of pouring out my creative heart till it's empty of Seed ideas for that part of the year. I'm not afraid of empty because I recognize the Source of my creativity. I'd call that God, but other words work as well: Source, Intelligence, The One, The All, Mother.
Seeds themselves are a special kind of writing. I like to write them in two or three days and have that be all I am doing. A holiday weekend is perfect. It almost never takes long before I'm in the groove, and soon enough I'm done.
The secret of empty is the belief that I will be filled. Empty here on planet Earth means filled is on its way. Nature, it is said, abhors a vacuum. So does creativity.
Are you stuck in a creative project or anywhere else in your life?
Good. Get empty.
It's good to be empty.
For spiritual nourishment, visit Dr. Susan Corso's website and blog, Seeds for Sanctuary. Follow her on Twitter @PeaceCorso and Friend her on Facebook.