---
title: "The Emptying"
date: 2026-07-19
description: "The river sets its stones down to reach the sea. A poem about opening your hands before they are opened for you."
categories: ["Creative Writing", "Dharma Writings"]
tags: ["poetry", "letting-go", "impermanence", "non-attachment", "practice"]
url: /blog/the-emptying/
---

# The Emptying

The river does not carry stones uphill.  
It sets them down, one by one,  
and this is how it reaches the sea.

You were not born holding anything.  
Look at your hands now...  
full of keys to rooms you never enter,  
heavy with things that once meant something  
to someone you no longer are.

The bird knows when to leave the nest.  
Not because the nest is bad,  
but because the sky is calling  
and wings cannot answer  
while gripping limbs.

Friend, listen to me,  
...do not wait  
until your hands are opened for you.  
Set down the cup while you can still taste  
the sweetness of choosing.

A lighter boat  
rides higher on the water.  
A smaller house  
holds more of the morning light,  
and the breeze visits deeper when windows can breathe.

What you release  
does not disappear.  
It returns to the world,  
which was only ever lending it,  
and the world says: well done,  
you have learned the oldest prayer,  
which is letting go  
before the letting go  
is done for you.