The Quiet Between Steps

I remember sitting on a stone bench in a courtyard in Kyoto, watching a group of school children rush past in a blur of navy blue uniforms. They were shouting, laughing, and chasing the pigeons, completely consumed by the noise of their own momentum. Just a few feet away, an elderly man sat perfectly still, his hands resting on his knees. He wasn’t waiting for anyone, and he wasn’t looking at his phone. He was simply existing in the space between the chaos. It struck me then that we spend so much of our lives trying to outrun the silence, filling every gap with movement or conversation. We fear the stillness because it asks us to be present, and being present is often the hardest work of all. Yet, it is only in that quiet, when the noise finally drops away, that we can actually see the person standing right in front of us. Does the world look different when you finally decide to stop moving?

Shirren Lim has captured this exact sense of stillness in her beautiful image, The Monk at Shwedagon Pagoda. It reminds me that the most profound moments are often found in the pauses we choose to take. Does this image make you want to slow down for a moment?