Offering 2024–041

a tanka -

contemplating life
a quiet storm rolling through
I sit in lotus

nothing else matters but now
nothing else matters but now

— —

I awoke before dawn to the sound of rain hitting our rubber roof.

Without a single conscious thought, I sat up, drew my legs underneath me into lotus, and listened to my world in the darkness.

I contemplated for a moment what the rhythm of the rain might look like on a sheet of music before letting that complex thought fall away into the void.

Four feet behind me, my wife sighed in her sleep, safe and warm in the land of dreams.

I started to plan out my day ahead, but stopped just as soon as I started and bade myself dwell in the moment of peace that I found myself in.

My life lead me to this place.

My life will pull me away from this place.

But for the moment, my life is this place.

Nothing else matters but now.