I still don’t know what to write, so I’m randomly choosing an emoji a day and writing 200 words about it. Another one of my writing slump cheats. Today’s emoji is ??‍♂️

Sit and be still.

Run and lose it all.

Is it always either/or?

I want to run with stillness.

My actions are my only belongings, my prayers made alive, my meditation in the flow of life.

‘Cause only so, 

Can it truly, deeply make any sense.

-—————-

The prose above is about mindfulness and meditation. In the monastery where I learned mindfulness, we walked, ate, worked and moved about mindfully and slowly with care. But what happens after we leave and come back to the city? The city where the rush never sleeps? Move slowly and risk being pushed from behind? How do I move fast but with a still heart? Or for anything else fast for that matter? It’s easy to be mindful in the monastery. How then when back home? Is it always a zero sum game? There must be a way to be fully present when moving fast. It made me think…How do children do it? They don’t think like we adults do, don’t they? They simply are. Always present, always fully available to the life that’s before them at the moment. 

I, too, want to run as a child does. I want to run with stillness.