17 October

Notebook: On Being Calm. One

by Jon Katz

This year, I’ve learned a great deal about being calm, which is not something I knew much about for most of my life. I have learned to focus on what I call points of calming.

I pay attention to the things I care about and that have meaning for me, and I shut out the anger and judgment and poison of the outer world. Emma’s wonderful photos of Robin, her daughter, and my granddaughter have helped to calm me, and I turn to them at those points in the day when I want to settle and feel grounded.

I got another in this series of beautiful and iconic photos today, and I have the feeling that through them, I am getting to really know my daughter in a different way. That in itself is calming.

Patience is the ability to be calm no matter what, to be light in the heart.

2 Comments

  1. I could relate so well to this, Jon. Being calm is a skill I had to learn. There are many sage and wonderful teachers of calm, if we but look around. It is a gift to be able to choose it as a response, especially in the midst of what can feel like rising panic or fear.

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