This Present Stillness
“Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks”
T.S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday
I have lost the stillness.
Did I ever have it?
I think I had it as a child,
when I would sit in my mother’s arms,
never questioning what tomorrow held,
or even today for that matter.
Everything was new, everything wonderful.
Now I act as if the only wonderful
thing is whatever comes next.
I throw out the present with the past,
always waiting for the future,
which of course will never come.
The past is definite, the future infinite,
and both turn to stone in the light of the present.
Teach me to be still in this eternal present.
