Beginner's Mind

I woke with one memory of a dream: Myself speaking, "I like beginnings."

I like Monday, it's filled with possiblities, and the wrong turns or detours I took last week are behind me. Like hiking in the desert, I don't see obstructions; I see the hill I mean to reach, and it seems possible to get there with what I have in me to go that distance - an illusion that reveals itself as such by Thursday; somehow the hill stays far even as I approach nearer. I repeatedly must re-learn to appreciate the patterns in my path's surprising intersections, the detours that might run parallel.

Ravenna Taylor, "Not Yet," 2011, assemblage, 7 x 4 inches

Saturday night I attended a wonderful performance of Bach cantatas by Dryden Ensemble. The vocal quartet was comprised of members of Tenet, and as a singer I was particularly inspired. To sing a Bach cantata in such a quartet is like that mountain in the desert that I will never reach. I have to enjoy my own journey, and the view in the distance.

I am beginning ... I am a beginner.