Dear Reader:

A couple of days ago, I came across this ” parable” called ” The Tale of the Ringless Ring.” * It elevated my consciousness level in a new direction for me.

Once there was a beloved and greatly revered spiritual leader who lived in a small village.

One day a friend and devoted member of the leader’s spiritual community, came to him and announced sadly that his work was sending him far away to live and that their paths would probably never cross again.

He then asked the spiritual leader if he might consider giving him a ring he had admired on the leader’s finger over their long time together… it would be a precious token to remember him by.

Thoughtfully the leader paused, stared at his ring, and then replied,” Why don’t I keep my ring. Then everyday , when you look at your hand and see an empty finger, without my ring, you will think of me.”

This parable describes a perfect example of ” emptiness.” Instead of seeing something, one sees nothing and it is the ” nothing” that is meaningful.

Several responses to the story were interesting but I especially liked one woman, named Leslie’s observation.

When she was about eight, one day she asked her father about the universe and how it began. Her father told her that before there was an universe, there was nothing.

She remembered replying, ” But daddy, there has to be something for there to be nothing.” ( ” Out of the mouths of babes.” )

In other words… nothing is always something. But it was the word ” empty” that got my neurons lighting in memory from a sermon written for my favorite Christmas movie.

The Christmas sermon that David Niven delivers as the Bishop in The Bishop’s Wife is called ” The Empty Stocking” -perhaps it best illustrates the true meaning of when nothing is a big big SOMETHING!

” Tonight I want to tell you the story of an empty stocking.”

“ Once upon a midnight clear , there was a child’s cry, a blazing star hung over a stable, and wise men who came with birthday gifts. ”

” We haven’t forgotten that night down the centuries. We celebrate it with stars on Christmas trees,with the sound of a bell, and with gifts. But ESPECIALLY with gifts…no family member is forgotten, adult or child.

All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger- it’s His Birthday we’re celebrating, Don’t let us ever forget that!

Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most. And then , let each put in his share… LOVING KINDNESS, WARM HEARTS, and a STRETCHED OUT HAND of TOLERANCE. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.”

So until tomorrow… There is no nothingness on this planet … unless, we have no faith in the GREATEST SOMETHINGNESS!

Today is my favorite day-Winnie the Pooh