A Thimble Full of Ocean?

I once read an analogy for taking in the spirit world. Paraphrased, it goes like this...

If I go to the ocean with a thimble, I will only be able to leave my encounter with... a thimble full of the sea. If I approach the water with a gallon bucket, I carry away a gallon.

Of course, the ocean, the water, always symbolizes the spirit. It has in many spiritual traditions the world over. The vessel? I am the vessel. If I go to the spirit world with a thimble-sized attitude, then that is what I will get: a thimble-sized spirituality. But if I approach this vast Spirit with an empty heart I can come away full of God.

Do I go to God with an empty heart? How hungry am I? Do I approach with my own ideas fixed firmly in place? Or, am I malleable, openminded?

Am I tired of the limits I impose on my own spiritual experience? I alone choose how I encounter the ocean. I encounter the ocean alone.

Will I be satisfied with one visit? Will I fill up, go out into the world, and come back for more?

"Enough shovels of earth—a mountain.
Enough pails of water—a river"
-- Chinese Proverb