Hospitality ~ Empty Spaces

I had given casual thought to the relationship between hospitality and brokenness or emptiness but these past days have been a fierce invitation to live into this relationship.  Being without a computer for a week (that’s another story, it seems there’s always a story…) has brought on a sense of dis-connect, a type of brokenness and emptiness all its own making.  While I miss the sense of feeling connected with others ~ especially savoring the wise words and questions in this Holy Season that I so look forward to at my favorite sites ~ the lack of a computer has offered a gift if I choose to receive it: empty space.

This gift takes me down a path I may not have chosen otherwise: emptiness, brokenness, darkness, without-ness.  The invitation is there, I have only to cross the threshold.  And I am discovering that there are layers to this threshold, layers of emptiness and brokenness to live through.  Perhaps this is what John the Baptist spoke of when he said, “Prepare the way.”  What if prepare isn’t about pulling out all the Christmas boxes from the attic or basement in order to get the house just right or about baking up a storm but rather it’s about emptying, being without, getting rid of, all in order to make room?  Could it be that it’s in the empty spaces and brokenness where there’s room for Emmanual to be born?

So, just a simple photo this thyme, and a quote from Jan Richardson’s delightful and rich book Night Visions: Searching the Shadows and Advent and Christmas (unfortunately it is out of print for this season with hopes for more next year, fortunately I was able to purchase the last copy which was said to have some minor damage that I have yet to find.)

                            

        

                                                              

“You hollow us out, God,

so that we may carry you,

and you endlessly fill us

only to be emptied again.

Make smooth our inward spaces

and sturdy,

that we may hold you

with less resistance

and bear you

with deeper grace.”

                               

May the Mystery of blessedness in empty spaces and brokenness abide with you.