When you are interiorly free you call others to freedom, whether you know it or not. Freedom attracts wherever it appears. A free man or a free woman creates a space where others feel safe and want to dwell. Our world is so full of conditions, demands, requirements, and obligations that we often wonder what is expected of us. But when we meet a truly free person, there are no expectations, only an invitation to reach into ourselves and discover there our own freedom.
-- Henri Nouwen
...for a nice thread on some ideas connected to this notion of the importance of 'space' in our lives, click the 'space' link above and follow the links in subsequent pages, too. These have been very helpful for me...against the back-drop of all the demands I feel in life (including the ones I've created for myself!).
