The Bench That Changed My Life

About 12 years ago I attended a retreat in Ojai.

I'll never forget one moment.

It was Saturday afternoon.

Lunch had just ended.

I wandered into the garden and sat on a simple wooden bench.

The sun was warm.

The birds were singing.

There was absolutely nothing extraordinary happening.

And then I smiled.

Not because I'd accomplished something.

Not because I'd solved a problem.

Because I realized...

for the first time in my adult life...

I wasn't waiting for the next thing.

I was simply there.

That moment changed me.

Not because I became enlightened.

Because I discovered what my nervous system had been missing.

Space.

When I came home I didn't become less ambitious.

I became more creative.

Ideas flowed again.

Poetry returned.

Business solutions appeared.

My relationships deepened.

The fog began to lift.

The answers had never been missing.

They had simply been buried beneath constant doing.