Why I Was Late to Plenary

The chime sounded to begin an hour of silence.

I started walking up the road,

Trying to find silence in my churned-up monkey brain.

Step, step, step.

Listen for each big and tiny sound.

My shoes on the asphalt, the chickadee's call,

An airplane above, the wind whispering in tall pines.

Step, step, step.

See all that the eyes can see.

The clouds in a blue sky, the root ball of an upturned tree,

Water flowing down the hill, a patch of blooming daffodils.

I find myself kneeling by the daffodils,

Watching the way the sun shines through them.

Seconds, minutes (hours?) later,

I come back to the reality of the space-time continuum.

I am a twenty-minute walk away from the plenary

Which starts in five minutes.

Step, step, step.

I walk and listen and see

In the spaciousness of silence.