Look at what's not there...to see what is!

I’ve spent some time over the past weeks reading through some old texts of mine and have come across many thoughts, essays and musings I’d noted down including some verses and points of interest from various people I was studying way back when.

As I’ve noted many times, it can be refreshing to hear ‘that song’ or watch ‘that movie’ or ‘taste/smell that food or scent’ and become absorbed within the memories that are evoked.

Of course I appreciate the memories may not always be healthy ones.

In this case, for me the memory is positive. Revisiting the quote below I notice that it continues to engage me in its simplicity and the contradictory nature of things. It goes to show that life isn’t just one thing (being happy, or being frustrated or being wealthy or …..), there’s always another perspective and often multiple things co-existing together.

thirty spokes converge at one hub;

what is not there makes the wheel useful.

Clay is shaped to form a vessel;

What is not there makes the vessel useful.

Doors and windows are cut to form a room;

What is not there makes the room useful.

Therefore, take advantage of what is there,

By making use of what is not.

11th passage from the Tao of Power

Lau Tzu’s guide as interpreted by R L Wing