the space between

“The intended space between leaves are as important as the leaves themselves”. — Henri Matisse from the Le Platane serigraph

The space between the leaves is just as important as the leaves.

Music requires silence between the notes to be music. Light and dark. Matter and void. Yin and yang. They all require what is often called their opposite. But really all of these are complements of each other. You need one to reveal the other.

We naturally focus on the leaves and forget that we need the space between the leaves as well.

We fill our silence with podcasts. We stuff ourselves with information. When do we focus on just being? Every session of stuff requires an equal session of nothing. We neglect these nothing sessions.

The nothing sessions may be more important than the stuff sessions. These sessions quiet our mind and allow us to process our stuff sessions. Without this, we are going against our nature.

Nature clearly leaves space in all things. Genes. Trees. Music. Tissues. You name it.

To be whole, we need to do nothing sometimes. And it seems that we (mainly me) need to be constantly reminded of this.