When I ever need a refresher, I step outside and find somewhere quiet, and I read Sam Hamill’s translation of Japanese haiku: quiet reminders that the smallest things can evoke an entire world of feeling and memory. I breathe deeper, I write more creatively, I try to live more creatively, when I take the time to notice just a single blade of grass, or to pray in silence, feeling the wind on my face. I try to stop and notice when something flits by — a dragonfly in a flash of blue wings, or the sound of a child’s laugh somewhere far away — something that can make me wake up just a little, for a moment.
Awakened at midnight
by the sound of the water jar
cracking from the ice
– Basho
