The Quiet Center

I sat on a bench at the park this morning, waiting for a friend who was running late. The city around me felt like a drum beating too fast. People were rushing toward the subway, cars were honking, and the wind was whipping trash across the sidewalk. It was exhausting just to watch. Then, I saw a woman sitting near the bus stop. She wasn’t looking at her phone or checking her watch. She was just sitting there, her hands folded in her lap, watching a pigeon peck at a crumb. In that sea of frantic movement, she looked like a stone in a river—the water rushed around her, but she remained perfectly still. It made me wonder why we feel such a desperate need to keep moving. We treat stillness like it is a waste of time, or worse, a sign that we are falling behind. But maybe, in the middle of all the noise, the only way to really be present is to stop trying to keep up.

Keith Goldstein has captured this exact feeling of stillness in his beautiful image titled Junction. It is a powerful reminder that we can find our own pace even when the world is moving at full speed. Does this scene make you want to slow down, too?