Came across this in my reading this week:

Gramatically, the negative, our capacity to say No, is one of the most impressive features of our language. The negative is our access to freedom. Only humans can say No. Animals can’t say No. Animals do what instinct dicatates. No is a freedom word. I don’t have to do what either my glands or my culture tell me to do. The judicious, well-placed No frees us from many a blind alley, many a rough detourm frees us from debilitating distractions and seductive sacrilege. The art of saying No sets us free to follow Jesus.

Eugene Peterson, Saint Mark: the basic text for Christian Spirituality. (emphasis mine)

In a permissive, ‘yes’ culture this is a provocative statement.

Yet, it is true.

Yes, there is need to counter the self-centred flip-side of shutting down things with a ‘No’.

Yet, as I reflect upon it, it breathes space and life into the clutter…