Occupation and not empty space is what most of us are looking for. When we are not occupied we become restless. The preoccupation is in fact a greater stumbling block than occupation. We are so afraid of open spaces and empty places that we occupy them with our minds even before we are there.
Our worries and concerns are expressions of our inability to leave unresolved questions unresolved and open-ended situations open-ended. They make us grab any possible solution and answer that seems to fit the occasion. Our preoccupation prevent our having new experiences and keep us hanging on to the familiar ways, It often seems that we prefer a bad certainty to a good uncertainty. If we would stop telling ourselves that the world is such and so, it would cease to be so!
We cannot change the world by a new plan, project or idea. We cannot even change other people by our convictions, stories, advice and proposals, but we can offer a space where people are encouraged to disarm themselves, to lay aside their occupations and preoccupations and to listen with attention and care to the voices speaking in their own centre.
We cannot be filled unless we become first an empty cup.
- Henry Nouwen-
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