No Place, But Here

"You don't have to wait for happiness, because there's no time but now to be happy. You don't have to go somewhere else, because there's no place but here to find it. You don't have to do something else, because there's nothing more to it. You don't have to get something else, because everything you already have is enough. You just have to be happy." - Karen Maezen Miller

Tomorrow afternoon my husband is picking up my favorite traveling monk, Karen Maezen Miller (aka Mae aka Momma Zen) at the airport.

I met Mae (virtually) when Satch was a smidge over a year old. I had posted this photo on my blog of his favorite pastime...here, dumping books off the shelf and putting them back.

Mae was blog surfing when she spotted mine and in particular, the tiny gem of a book amidst the rubble. She sent me a copy of her book with a note that read, "I thought you could use a little more zen companionship". I loved her book! I loved it publicly here.

A year later I had some questions for her and she kindly answered them in a Mom to Mom interview on my blog, here. The following year she had a few questions of her own for me here.

Fast forward three years plus a whole lot of pixels and you can probably imagine my excitement to discover that Maezen would be teaching a mindful parenting workshop here at the Lil Omm Center in DC. I bought a ticket right away.

A day or so later I received an email from Mae - she was looking for a place to stay. I replied, " You can stay here, it's my pleasure to serve you".

For the last five years I have been seeing the "Enso" from the cover of Mae's book everywhere.

I see it here, in coffee rings that trace my pre-dawn steps to the studio.


I see it here, in the fallen birds nests that we pick up and carry home to our mantel because they are too pretty to leave to the elements.

And I see it here in this moment - coming full circle, face to face with my zen companion.