I have a dear friend who volunteers once a week in the emergency room of a local hospital. One of her roles is to help alleviate that anxiety-filled process of waiting for treatment. So she gets to hear stories from people, and I get to hear some of them.
This week, she met an elderly lady whose husband came in for an emergency. As the woman shared her distress, she added that “yesterday was so wonderful” because she and her husband had an uneventful day when “nothing happened.”
For some reason, that phrase– nothing happened– has stuck with me.
The idea of “nothing” is something most of us run away from. “Nothing” is associated with emptiness, with a life wasted, with the absence of meaningful things.
And yet, I can’t stop thinking about what that woman said. I can understand, of course, why the woman said it. Compared to sitting in the ER while her beloved is being cared for, a day of “nothing” must feel like heaven.
But then I thought, what about those of us who are not in a moment of peril when we might crave a little nothing? When our lives are full of meaningful and happy somethings, can there still be value in nothing?
It depends on how we view nothing.
If nothing means we’re paralyzed by our emotions to the point that we can’t do anything, we need to be rescued by the opposite of nothing— the healing power of action.
But if nothing means we take moments during the day to embrace quiet reflection on what matters most in our lives, that is a nothing that can also have healing power.
The nothing that heals and nourishes is the nothing we create when we strip away distractions and look at our life as a blank canvas. In that blank canvas is where we find renewal, where we return to our humanity, where we encounter hope and gratitude.
Shabbat can have that effect. The absence of work, the break from the rest of the week, are tools that help us renew our lives.
Shabbat, in a sense, transforms nothing into meaning.
Just like that woman in the hospital, Shabbat is the day that shows us how “nothing” can become the deepest blessing.
Shabbat shalom.
