life is a spark between two identical voids, the darkness before birth and the one after death.
this is a rhythm, a twin rhythm between what we might call emptiness and fullness. the emptiness is the twin of what becomes possible as the days of a life unfold. into this unoccupied space come the new, the urgent, the unexpected, the full.in a work of art that emptiness is called negative space. it is what allows the positive of the brushstroke, the marble, the colour to be manifested.
in singing and speaking it is the pause for breath or for the full stop at the end of a sentence.
in music it is the rest note, the silence of the instruments that allows their sound to come to our ears.
on a ramble in the countryside it is the moments we sit on a log or a stone to contemplate the view or the moss at our feet.
it is the voids of birth and death that allow the experience of each year, each day, each moment. where were we before we were born and where will we be after we die? these are, of course, without answer. we can only fill in the life between them with colour and shape and sound and breath and movement and a vibrant spark.bringing a spark to experience is the work of the spiritual elder. living in that spark is the joy of the spiritual elder. when we have changed our internal paradigm to one of life-enhancement, the spark becomes a flame.
and that flame has the power to ignite a revolution in consciousness. when that power reaches a critical mass…the 100th monkey…not only will our personal relationship to ageing have changed, but the new social discourse will create respectful, compassionate responses to the ageing population. all that is needed is your spark.