The art of being still

My local newspaper, The Post Standard, will start publishing only 3 days a week beginning in January. My biggest concern is what to do with my missing morning Sudoku puzzle.  For several years, I've read the New York Times online. I don't miss having a print version, except for the crossword puzzle. Luckily, the office gets a daily print copy and we all make copies of the puzzle to work over our lunch breaks.

As an online subscriber to the NYTimes I get two little features called, "recommended for you" and "most viewed" that provide a handy list of articles the Times folks think I will like, based, I assume on what I have read in the past, and of articles that most people are reading.  There is some overlap...

This evening, though, the article that caught my eye was titled, "The art of being still." Turns out it is an essay by a writer on being a writer. He describes the need to be writing in your head, even while you are doing other things.  He states, "The problem is, too many writers today are afraid to be still."  This stillness is not inactivity, but heightened awareness, an acute appreciation of the richness of the world around you.  He argues that every encounter can be fodder for a writer if he or she is open to the awareness of the details.  I like the perspective of being still in your mind while active in life.  The sharpened sense of awareness and sensitivity should be good for all of us, writers or not.