Standing in the Quiet

I spent this morning trying to fix a leaky faucet in the kitchen. I am not a handy person, and after twenty minutes of twisting wrenches and getting nowhere, I just sat down on the floor. The house was completely silent. It is strange how we spend our lives trying to control our surroundings, fixing things that break and rushing to fill every gap in our schedule. But sitting there, I realized that the world doesn’t stop just because I am struggling. The dust motes kept dancing in the sunlight, and the trees outside my window continued their slow, steady sway. There is a certain dignity in simply existing, in being present without needing to perform or produce. We are so used to being the center of our own frantic stories that we forget how to just stand still and let the rest of the world breathe. What would happen if we stopped trying to fix everything for just one afternoon?

Saniar Rahman Rahul has captured this feeling perfectly in his image titled Lesser Adjutant in the Sundarbans. It reminds me that there is a quiet, regal power in simply holding your ground. Does this image make you feel like slowing down, too?