"Empty is not absence. Empty is capacity."

Welcome back to the porch. Today’s episode is a quiet one. I’ve been sitting with Verse 4 of the Tao Te Ching since before the sun came up, just watching the steam rise off my coffee and thinking about how much energy we spend trying to stay "full."

We’re a culture of filling—filling our calendars, our houses, and our heads with noise. But Lao Tzu suggests that the most useful part of a cup (or a life) is actually the space inside it.

In this episode, we’re untangling:

The "40-Meeting Week" Trap: Why we treat silence like a problem to be solved instead of a room to breathe in.
The Art of Blunting the Sharpness: Moving away from being "right" and toward being reachable.
Working the Knots: Why yanking on your old resentments only makes them tighter, and how to ease them loose instead.
Merging with the Dust: A reminder that we aren't standing above the world—we're made of the same stardust as the dirt under our feet.

If you’ve been feeling a little "sharp" lately, or if your internal glare is a bit too bright, I hope this gives you permission to just... let it be empty for a second.

Today’s Reflection:Where are you too full to receive anything new? What happens if you just sit in the "not-knowing" for the length of this episode?

Thanks for sharing a cup with me.

The Power of the Empty Cup | Verse 4 | Tao Te Ching