Sitting. Meditation. Mindfulness. While these practices have become more mainstream, they are ones I've wanted to commit to more formally. So last spring, I took the leap and committed to 7:00am Zazen on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Zen Center North Shore. I can honestly say that June was one of the best months I've ever had. Those two days grounded my week in ways of a structure and discipline, and I felt an expansion that was peaceful and liberating.
As my ride to the Zen Center includes a sweeping vista of the coastline, I decided I wanted to take one photograph a week as a reminder of my commitment, so I left early enough for a moment of reverence. The very first picture I took on May 26th marked the beginning - The Wide Span of Nothing that is Everything. And so this project and personal endeavor began.
Though projects and personal travel and commitments pulled me away from mid summer to late fall, I recommitted to a daily practice and as part of my personal ritual, I stop to take a photograph most every morning.
While the project began rather loosely (void of structure) and is still taking shape, I've been returning to a similar vantage point. Not precisely, but approximate. I say that as what I''m looking at is the sky, it doesn't always present itself from one point of view.
I believe in the year ahead, I'll start to journal a little more and add a phrase or thoughts. Or not. i don't honestly know. I don't feel a need to figure it out either because it's tied to my practice which is a path one simply sits in rather than defining.
This is the beginning and the end and all that's between.
