I think it does, in much the same way as silence. When I began on the path of embracing silence in my life - I began to hear so much more than I ever heard before. Take off your iPod ear buds and see what happens. You begin to hear all manner of thing: a soft wind in the trees, the singing of insects, a far off wail of an emergency, the crack of the bat at the neighborhood ball park, the lonely whistle of a train. You hear the movement of the family in your home, the dog snoring, the soft conversation of two lovebird settling down on their perches for the night, the neighbor coming home from second shift, the squealing of tires as a teenager pulls out of the drive in a last ditch effort impress the young lady of his current affections or to perhaps tick off her disapproving father... Then, if you can manage, you begin to hear those inward thoughts and sense those inward feelings. You find those places where you are comfortable in who you are, as well you should be. You find those places where you are uncomfortable in who you are, as well you should be. You find those places where the pain and joy of the past linger, the places that still need a healing touch, and the dark places that need light. And then, if you are really still, you may even hear the still, soft whisper of the voice of God speaking to your heart. They are whispers of love and comfort, conviction and redemption, rebuke and correction, affection and the love of a Father who loves you deeply and passionately and desire nothing but the very best. And yet further into the stillness comes the words that cannot be uttered, but your heart releases what ever it is that those unutterable words speak to. Perhaps the perspective of emptiness needs a new paradigm. Rather than seeing the sense of emptiness as a deficit, a lack of fullness, perhaps it is what needs to happen in order for us to be filled with something new. Something we need but were too full up with the busyness of our lives, the busyness of our minds, the busyness of movement designed to keep us from silence, from becoming aware of what we lack and the lack of who or what we perceive we ought to be. And to fill that empty space on my own, for me, is to pretend that I am all I need, that I am all there is, that I can satisfy all that hungers within me by the illusion tat I am my own God. So, I will sit with the emptiness, for it speaks to me. And I will wait, patiently, on a Father who loves me, to fill me with his next blessing. And because I am learning to sit with that deep void in the pit of my being, the filling will be all the sweeter. | 