A You-Shaped Emptiness

As I was cooking dinner the other night, I'd turned on the radio and was listening to some music. There was a whole orchestra playing, and I was listening absentmindedly as I worked. But then suddenly the orchestra paused and a flute began to play, its sweet notes soaring high and pure. The rest of the instruments joined it then, and the flute blended in, and the music continued. It made me stop in my tracks, I have to tell you. Just that one moment changed everything! I hadn't noticed before, that emptiness, the hole, without the one flute - yet when it began, it was just right. Suddenly the music was complete. It hadn't been until then.

It got me thinking about a phrase I learned recently: "There is a you-shaped emptiness in the world, waiting for you to fill it."

Just think of it! There is no one like you, nor will there ever be - no exact combination of traits and genes mixed together to make the one distinct you. No one else has your exact face or your fingerprints or speaks just like you. People who know you, listening to a crowd of talking voices, would be able to pick your voice out from the throng.

Think of your life: all the people you've encountered in your walk through this world, day by day. Conversations you've had, the places you've lived and worked, the people you've known and loved. All those years behind you, adding up, little by little, to form your own special note in the song that's playing all around us.

In the vastness of the universe, we are each so small, such a tiny scrap of life, humming along on our little paths day by day.

We feel like we need to do huge things - that's what we see online all the time; superstars and billionaires, or heroes who do incredible things. but it's people like us, all over the world, that are doing the small things that keep the world going.

You belong, my friend. You still belong. Go out there today and add your special, sweet notes to the music of life. Without you, the world would be an emptier place. Be the person you are, act out on what you know, do what you can do. Say what you need to say, give what you can. Follow the path to finding who you are and what your place is in the world.

And right now, more than ever, the world needs each of us. So join us, and add your voice to the mighty song of life!

Heather Jerrie

August 15, 2026