381 words, 2 minute read.
The bedrock of authentic, profound relationships is a paradoxical interplay of being and nothingness. For me to welcome you, I need to make space for you in me. I need to lose myself to receive you. And for such reception to be perfect, my self-annihilation too needs to be total. Only then can I welcome you as you are, and not only as the parts of my self that I hold on to leave room for. Unless I become nothing, I cannot receive you wholly.
But you mustn’t do the same! You mustn’t self-annihilate. If you did, there would be nothing for me to receive from you and we would both perish in vain. You must become the best you that you can be, so that you may have a gift worthy of filling the void I made of myself for you.
And when you give yourself to me, do it wholly. Hold nothing back. Empty yourself to the point of becoming the residual nothing of self-giving. And I, what will I do? Having received your perfect gift of self that fills the void I made by giving myself to you, I cannot but reciprocate by giving myself wholly to you. I make myself the best I that I can be, an I that has received a perfect gift from you. I now give my self, that you have enriched in me with your own self, to you. You receive me, a me that contains you, and can accept it wholly, having made yourself nothing.
To receive you, I must be nothing. To give myself to you, I must be everything. Everything for you. I am the best I that I can be when I give my self to you. A self that is nothing, so as to welcome you perfectly. A self that is everything, so as to be a perfect gift for you.
I am the best I that I can be when I give my self to you, and you reciprocate my free gift with your own. I become nothing for you. You become everything for me. I become everything for you. You become nothing for me. And our relationship becomes the place where we, self-annihilated and fulfilled in mutual self-giving, truly are.
eyebeleave 