Interconnection and the Power of Negative Space

Everything that can be said has been said before and will be said again. Some things are better left unsaid. We already know them. Some things are unable to be spoken even though we wish we could. Words, and language itself, are forms arising out of silence. The background. Now, space…

How did that feel? How about this?

As awkward as it feels writing an article with big blank spaces in the middle of it, I imagine it must feel at least a little awkward to have to scroll past them too. Does it seem wasteful? Do you wonder if I am like the kid in second grade who thinks, “I’ll just write really big letters in the composition book to take up more space and then I won’t have to think of as many words to write”? Or maybe, “If he’s trying to emphasize the negative space, why write anything at all?”

Which space was easier for you to encounter, the completely blank one or the one with the border around it? For me, the border felt more comfortable. As if the void were contained. (As if.) More manageable. There are the lines. Parameters. Borders give us an illusion of control.

Reflect on the environment you arose out of and within which you now live and move and have your being. The womb you were born from; the place where you live now; the water you drink and in which you bathe; the food you eat; the air you breathe; the bacteria and microorganisms surrounding and interpenetrating the organism you call yourself; the other people and animals with whom you live and regularly associate. Do you reside in the city or in the country? Urban or suburb? High rise or single family dwelling? What about the natural spaces around where you live? Is there a yard, garden, park, pasture, or field? Do you live in a forest, mountain, desert, grassland, or coastal region?

We arise out of our environment and go together with it. Just as the words composing this article would not be visible or intelligible without the blank screen behind them andthespacesbetweenthem [sic], we could not actually exist apart from the background of our environment. Breathing, sunning, eating, drinking, and excreting, we are our environment and it is us in a more fundamental way than we are usually aware of. What about our environment’s background? That is space. Emptiness. The Void. (Maybe also Light, but that is another topic for another day.)

What then is meant by “negative space”? Simply, the emptiness around forms. A table takes up the space that it does, and what is all around the table is the negative space, defining it and allowing us to recognize it in the first place. In Room for the Infinite, Quaker mystic Thomas Kelly discusses the genius of Chinese landscape painting and Quaker worship practice as two examples drawing our attention to negative space. (1)

It sets forth the Infinite, the Everlasting Background and Source of all things, and shows us the infinite particulars as out jutting revelations of Itself. Out from It they came, back into It they retire. There is no disconnection; the finite is a fragmentary disclosure of the Infinite, a rhythm-filled continuation of that unspeakably full Life which gives it birth. * * * It extends behind all objects as their common background. All spaces are one Space. All things have a final Environment and Mother.

Recently, I participated in a group painting activity with my hospice team. We gathered at a studio and were each given paints, brushes, smocks, and blank canvases. A facilitator showed us an example of the picture we would be painting and walked us through each step of the process. I do not consider myself a person who draws or paints well, and I really enjoyed this activity. I chose to mindfully engage with it, even asking my blank canvas what it wanted to produce. At the end of the session, all 9 of our canvasses contained images approximating the winter landscape in the example shown to us as well as the one painted by our facilitator. Simultaneously, all 9 of our canvases contained our 9 different unique perspectives, touches, colors, brush strokes, and interactions with the forms we were given to work with. I assure you, mine was no Chinese landscape, but I was thinking about them the whole time I was painting.

I find another example of negative space in my work as a professional Chaplain. Despite popular conceptions to the contrary, by far, most of what I do with people is not providing religious rites or rituals and not offering counsel or advice. It is simply holding space. Professional Chaplains facilitate a safe holding environment into which people can bring their stories and experiences, their uncertainties and wishes, their joys, their sorrows, and their pain.

Sometimes I am asked for thoughts or words about what is shared. Frequently I pray with people and speak affirmation to them. Often, holding the space itself is enough. It gives a person some breathing room around whatever else may be happening in their environment as well as inside their own heads and hearts. I am a mirror reflecting their forms back to them. I am a deep listener acknowledging and validating their feelings. I am a safe environment in which they can fall apart and also find their own way, bit by bit, toward greater wholeness from the experience, strength, and hope that is already within them.

Part of the great mystery is that we are interconnected with each other and all of Nature (because we’re It, of course!). Sometimes our connection is strengthened through the forms of language, DNA, family and friend associations, as well as shared beliefs and practices. Still, there is an even greater essential connection between all and everything. We are one because of the negative space between the forms we inhabit. Space cares not for blood nor belief. Space physically connects and unites and actually never lets go.

How can we become more open to an awareness of the negative space around us and everything? Practice paying attention to it. An old meditation technique is to imagine yourself as the sky and your thoughts and feelings are just the clouds passing by. When you find space in your day, try letting it be without filling it with words, images, or sounds. Turn off the TV for a bit. Put your phone down instead of auto-scrolling. Practice boredom.

When you lay down at night, imagine sleep as the blank canvas on which your waking life is painted. Visit a museum and look at a Chinese landscape (or look one up online). Cultivate physical stillness and inner receptivity as you look at it. Notice what is there and notice what is not. A few trees, a house, a person on a horse. So much nothing. That is also something. Vast, empty, negative space giving birth to all things. Thanks, Mom.

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