Yesterday in the midst of a workshop I was co-facilitating with my friend Elaine Silver called Follow Your Passion, Be Your Bliss, one of the participants commented that recently she found herself in ‘the void’. She described it as frustrating since the projects and ventures she attempted to create, seemed like they were going nowhere.  I could empathize, since there have been times in my life during which I perceived that I was spinning my wheels. For many, the void is a frightening place to be, if they believe they will never move past it. Fortunately, that has never been the case here, since my ‘inner Annie’ bursts forth in song with knowing “The sun’ll come out tomorrow….”  Several years ago, I had an experience of being in that shadowy place, scrambling to fill time with activity, afraid of ‘the nothing’ that I mistakenly believed would just swallow me up if given the chance to sink its sticky talons into me. I developed laryngitis and bronchitis, partly attributable to my unwillingness to speak my truth in an unpleasant situation. As a result, I was required to be silent to heal my voice. This in and of itself terrified me because I am a communicator by nature and profession. My vocal chords did eventually heal and I was able to ‘come clean’ with the person around whom this ‘truth telling’ was necessary in order to maintain a friendship.

I shared with the workshop participant that my ‘void’ sometimes felt like the song lyrics of the David Bowie song Space Oddity where I felt as if I wasn’t tethered to the Mother Ship and was going to disappear into the inky black vastness of the cosmos.

“This is major Tom to ground control, I’m stepping through the door

And I’m floating in a most peculiar way

And the stars look very different today

Here am I sitting in a tin can far above the world

Planet Earth is blue and there’s nothing I can do”

What I have since discovered is that ‘the void’ can be a fertile place in which the seeds I have been planting, have the necessary warmth, moistness and darkness in which they can take root and grow, just as plants do in the winter. Following some of my most internal moments, I have emerged with treasures I would not have found otherwise, since I would have been so busy doing that I had neglected to simply BE. Can we be absolutely certain of the outcome when we enter or leave the void?  I don’t think so. What I do know is that each time I have ventured inward, whether by conscious choice or happenstance, I have been grateful for the lessons that tagged along with me.

http://youtu.be/83P_oay3Bzo Uncertainty Minutes by Kim Revival