The Art of Standing Still

I missed my bus this morning because I stopped to watch a man trying to untangle his headphones on the sidewalk. Everyone else was power-walking, heads down, shoulders hunched against the wind, moving like they were being pulled by an invisible string. I felt that familiar itch to join them, to keep pace with the city’s frantic heartbeat. But then I saw him just stop. He wasn’t waiting for anyone; he was just existing in the middle of the sidewalk, completely unbothered by the sea of people flowing around him like water around a stone. It made me realize how rarely we give ourselves permission to simply be a stationary object in a world that demands constant motion. We are so afraid of being in the way, or being left behind, that we forget we have the right to claim our own space, even if only for a few seconds. What would happen if we all just stopped for a moment, right where we are?

Von Christopher Trabado has captured this exact feeling in his image titled Against the Flow. It is a beautiful reminder that we can choose to be the calm center of our own storm. Does this image make you want to slow down, too?