Space Between Chickadees & Chickpeas

“Between chickadees and chickpeas, there is much space between two breaths.”
~ Quote and pic by A.Void.

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This seems a strange quote
that you won't find just anywhere, 
as chickpea plants 
(seen here as green pods)
and chickadee birds 
are rarely associated together.

But,
between two breaths,
you say,
there is no space.
No space, no time?
Then, what is left?

Take away space,
take away distance, 
take away time-
not this, not this,
or, this too, this too-
and what remains is
the One Breath
of Consciousness. 

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🌀 Commentary for the Journeyer

(Tone, Symbolism, and the Pause Between Perceptions)

This piece unfolds as a playful paradox—at once absurd and deeply still. Chickadees and chickpeas, rarely linked in either ecology or metaphor, are strung together like a riddle. It is this strangeness that signals: something deeper is at work.

The humor disarms the logical mind. And that’s the point. Where logic falters, Presence may emerge.

The phrase “between two breaths” holds the key. The space between inhales is not a gap in air—it is a portal to awareness. Spiritual traditions across cultures have pointed to this pause, this infinitesimal stillness, as a glimpse into timelessness. But then the commentary says: “there is no space.”

What gives?

It is the mind that names things “chickpea” and “chickadee.” It is the mind that measures space. But awareness—true awareness—needs neither separation nor labels. What appears as space collapses when you rest deeply enough. Then, there is only One Breath, ever unfolding.

In this way, the image becomes more than a bird or a bean. It becomes a mirror: Do you experience life as scattered things—or a singular, sacred unfolding?

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🪶 Questions for the Journeyer

(For Introspection, Reflection & Meditation)

• When you take a breath, where does it come from—and where does it go?

• What is your relationship to silence? Can silence be touched or seen?

• Have you ever noticed the space between words, sounds, or thoughts?

• When you look at a plant or bird, do you feel separate from it—or somehow entangled?

• What is the difference between emptiness and spaciousness, if any?

• Why does the commentary say there is no space between two breaths but the quote says there is much space?

  Because paradox is the path. The quote holds perceived contrast, the commentary dissolves it. On the surface, chickadees and chickpeas feel far apart—like inhalation and exhalation. But in deep presence, that distance disappears. So yes, there is much space… until there is none. Both are true, depending on the level of seeing.

• Does space, distance and time need to be taken away or are they mere constructs of the mind and hence do not exist?

  They are functional illusions—useful for navigating form, but not absolute. When you drop below the level of thought, time collapses, space unhooks, and you find yourself breathing the now—not in it, but as it. So yes, they are constructs… but exquisitely poetic ones.

• “Not this, not this” (the technique of neti, neti) is followed by an opposite technique of inclusiveness, “this too, this too.” Does this mean that both emptiness and allness can be used for the same destination of liberation?

  Exactly. Neti, neti clears the clutter. “This too” reclaims it.
  Liberation isn’t about rejecting form—it’s about not clinging to it.
  Both negation and inclusion are tools to arrive at the same spaciousness. Illness, silence, music, laughter, heartbreak—they’re all viable gates. The path of paradox is wide open.

• Why does the quote mention there is “space between TWO breaths” but the commentary mentions there is only one breath?

  The two breaths belong to the illusion of duality. The commentary collapses that into nonduality—where there is only one breath, breathing itself. The inhale and exhale are just waves on the surface of the One Breath. Chickadee, chickpea, you, me—ripples in the same pond.

• Has anyone ever contemplated the space between a chickadee bird and a mere chickpea bean ? When you see a chickpea bean in your kitchen, do you think about where it came from, how it was grown, its life and cycle? Do you contemplate the seed? Do you see the space that is between you and the chickpea- and what to say of space?

  Do you contemplate the seed? The breath of the bean? The space between you and the chickpea?

  If they haven’t, they should now.
  Because this is the beauty of mystical absurdity—the invitation to see the sacred in the overlooked, the liminal in the literal.
  The chickpea and chickadee share something eternal: rhythm, life-cycle, sentience in seed form. And the space between them is the playground of presence.

• Does this quote also imply about the “breath of life” on the planet- the breath of the plants, the breath of the birds- the interdependence of life? Is it lives within lives or just life?

  Yes, beautifully so. It speaks of biocentric consciousness—the breath that runs through roots, wings, lungs, oceans. There is one breath moving through many vessels.
  So maybe it’s not “life within lives”… maybe it’s Life living through lives, always arriving, always exhaling itself into form.