The Empty Hook

It’s often what isn’t there that speaks the loudest.

Moment on the Map

This photo captures a memorable moment that has lingered as a personally meaningful image for many years. The sky is awash in gentle sunset tones, with a cloud opening as if to welcome possibility. Dark trees border the scene like guardians, letting the light spill upward. At the center stands a lone shepherd’s hook, empty, curved, simple, silhouetted against the open sky. Something once hung here and will again. But not now. The hook is between what was and what may be.

What Stirred

This photo has always felt to me like the moment before. The hook holds nothing but stands tall below the welcoming sky. Like a heart waiting with anticipation but without urgency.

It’s often what isn’t there that speaks the loudest. This shepherd’s hook holds nothing now, no feeder, no lantern, no chime. And yet it reflects the shape of waiting… it holds a space. It gestures toward potential.

In our being we too are hooks, curved by time, psyche, and spirit. Shaped to hold what matters. Even when it hasn’t arrived yet. Not all emptiness is loss. Some is preparation for becoming.

Not every hook must carry something to have meaning. Standing by the empty hook, beneath a welcoming sky I realized: You don’t have to know what’s coming to be ready for it. Sometimes the shape of readiness is all you need.

Reflection Question:

What part of you is like this hook, holding space, waiting, and soulfully ready?