A bubble has space inside it. The bubble is a container—it contains space. A photograph is also a container—it contains an image, a moment in time. A sentence is a container — it contains a thought.
If we don’t have a way to contain something, it doesn’t exist. Magic potions are only potions because they’ve been contained in a bottle.
Rather than wonder what you might want to write about, or what your next step is, or how to solve that issue at work, or how to grow your business, why don’t you wonder about your container instead?
You can make any kind of container that you’d like—it can be big or small, round or square, it could even be a triangle or something with a unique shape. It’s your container, so make sure it pleases you.
Psychologist Charles Johnston said:
I spend a lot of time taking stock of and care of the containers I’ve created for my life: the physical places where I work and where I live, the commitments that define the relationships in my life, the kinds of things I choose to do. I find that, to a remarkable degree, if I just care well for the containers, what happens within them takes care of itself, growing and unfolding in ways that surprise and gratify… Things absolutely cannot grow unless they are in their own supportive environment. This means that you must grow a form that’s nourishing of what you want to create.
Most of us spend so much time worrying about things and contents, getting lost in whatever is happening in the moment. But the container is what’s sacred.