Letting go is basically making space for more—and for all otherness—inside of my small self. Jesus made this point in his very opening line in his first sermon: “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (see Matthew 5:3). We do not live in a culture that appreciates letting go or “poverty of spirit.” We are consumers and capitalists by training and by habit. Yet, just as in the Trinity, all infilling must be preceded by a necessary self-emptying—or there is never room in the inn!
-- Richard Rohr
This reflects a bit of a break-through for me of late; a natural progression, perhaps, of letting go. I cannot experience more by trying to put more in. I can only experience more by emptying myself. As Rohr puts it, our (my) desire to pack things a bit more tighter or more efficiently seems intuitively true, but as I have experienced it, it doesn't work. The metaphor of a cup of coffee works for me here -- using my thumb to try to jam more liquid into it is useless -- things only spill over the rim.
I am one size, no bigger. But that doesn't mean I don't have capacity to grow. My capacity to grow, however, is not achieved by becoming bigger or more dense, it is about becoming more spacious and letting more flow out of me. I can stop trying to retain what I have and start learning to empty myself, so that more can come in. It, too, will need to flow out, which will allow the process to repeat. This is the way I can grow - in and out, in and out...like breathing. Holding more, carrying more, simply is not the way.
So, what does self-emptying look like?
