Where the Silence Settles

I spent this morning trying to organize my bookshelf, pulling out old paperbacks I haven’t touched in years. I found a dried leaf tucked into a page of poetry, brittle and pale, and for a moment, I couldn’t remember which autumn it belonged to. It felt like a small, quiet ghost of a season I had long since moved past. We spend so much of our lives rushing toward the next thing, convinced that the value of our time is measured by how much we can pack into a single day. But holding that leaf, I realized that the most important parts of our history are often the ones that have gone completely still. It is in the places where nothing is happening, where the wind has stopped and the noise of the world has faded, that we finally get a chance to hear ourselves think. Do you ever find yourself drawn to places that seem to be holding their breath?

Ana Sylvia Encinas has captured this feeling perfectly in her image titled Fort Shaw. It reminds me that there is a profound kind of peace waiting in the wide, open spaces. What does this quiet landscape stir in you?