Day 38: The space of things

As Julene, the owner of Namies Namakwa Retreat informed me today, Northern Cape has the biggest land mass of all South Africa's provinces, but the smallest population. This places bigger distances between things. According to her this has two benefits; lower crime and and a greater appreciation for friendships. When you live in such remote isolation a friendly cup of coffee with a neighbor, who lives 50km away, takes on a whole new meaning.

The distance between people is not the only thing that is vast. This arid moon landscape can go years without rain too. Today I had the privilege of driving through a rainstorm. With such a gift I could not sit isolated in my little steel and glass cocoon, so I drove about 100km with the windows open. The smell of the African desert drinking up the rain is intoxicating. The excitement as life instantaneously springs up from the desert floor to greedily capture every little drop for growth, pores through your senses on every dimension.

There is an old chinese parable of a great leader asking his generals how one makes the strongest cart wheel. Some insisted that their blacksmiths made the strongest steel, which surely made the tough rims needed for strength. Others boasted of their ancient forests with hard wood, needed for the tough, flexible core. The general who got to lead all others answered: "the strength of the wheel comes from the empty spaces, between the spokes. The master craftsman knows how to space them just right."

The space between things is one of the most powerful elements of a team and company's design. In this age of digital connection and instant access, how much time do we spend on deliberately creating space? Space to reflect and appreciate each other. Space to bring about a new form of listening that invigorates all the senses. The joy of reconnection and surprising friendships evaporates like lost raindrops on baking stones when we spend our time in the burning light of our screen-terface.