The Quiet Center

I spent this morning trying to organize my bookshelf, but I ended up just sitting on the floor with a dusty volume of poetry I hadn’t opened in years. It is funny how we spend so much energy trying to tidy up the edges of our lives, rearranging the things that don’t really matter, while the center remains untouched. I think we are often afraid of the center. It is where things are most vulnerable, most exposed, and most honest. We prefer the safety of the periphery, the clutter of our daily routines, because it gives us an excuse to look away from the core of who we are. But every once in a while, something pulls us back to that singular, bright point. It is a moment of total stillness where the noise of the world simply stops, and for a few seconds, you are not worried about what comes next or what you left behind. You are just there, held by the weight of your own existence. What is the one thing you keep returning to when the rest of the world feels too loud?

Swaroop Singha Roy has captured this feeling perfectly in his image titled On a White Cushion. It reminds me that sometimes the most profound beauty is found when we stop looking at the whole and focus entirely on the heart of the matter. Does this image make you feel as still as I do?