When he was young in Africa, he said,
people held things loosely.
Nothing was yours to keep.
Life and death forever present –
you held things lightly
and you felt at home wherever you went.
You were part of everything – baobab trees, elephants, and people,
and everything was part of you.
Sunday morning I noticed my mind going into a frenzy of worry about some small thing and decided to take a walk. After walking awhile I stopped at the fountain in Malcolm X Park to watch a family of ducks. Watching the ducks reminded me of standing and breathing with the nuns in Plum Village (Stillness is a Door), silent and still, with enough inner space to know that I was alive and part of an amazing world.
I remembered other times when I felt alert and undistracted, attentive, and happy to 
be alive.