Stillness

I read a book by Pico Ilyer called "The Art of Stillness:Adventures in Going Nowhere"....the "unexpected pleasures of sitting still as a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it". It begins with his visit to his hero, the legendary Leonard Cohen, who had begun his 5 years of seclusion at the Mt. Baldy Zen Center. Leonard Cohen, whose life was bawdy, stylish, lusty and worldly, came to seek a more real respite from that life and revel in silence. His name, Jikan, refers to the silence between two thoughts.

Fog brings that stillness to my world. I rock in its arms when it comes up the mountain...I roll in its wet warmth. Its silent approach woke me at 4am and I stole downstairs, stoked the fire and sat cross-legged before it. I knew it was outside waiting. It was still...I was still...there was no world but my own body. I embraced the silence between two thoughts.

Walking in fog is kinder than sunshine.