[I remember Neil and Dillan's Excellent Summer Adventure from several summers ago. Then, they graduated high school, went to college and are soon graduating college too! They both recently came back home and joined an Awakin Circle. What a joy to read about Dillan's share (below) in the circle, on Pablo Neruda's poem!]

It's been probably like five years since I've been here, since the days of my summer internship. It feels like a very, very long time. And it feels really good to be back.

This afternoon, I called Neil and I was like, "Hey, did you read, did you read the passage for this week?" And he said no, and he's like, 'Do you want me to send it to you?" I'm like, "I have it in front of my face." So then I hung up and I took some time to read it and I was thinking about the definition of nothing.

I decided that "nothing" is a figure of speech. I actually think nothing is stillness. But then I started thinking about when stillness is present in my life?

I was thinking about moving from being one minded to being more open-minded. When I was younger, I used to be very one minded because I used to be caught up in rigorous routines. As I started growing up, I was more able to be open minded -- and that openness somewhat let me be more still.

Stillness is relative to my routine. When I'm doing less of what I normally do, there are many activities where I feel I'm doing nothing and things are more free-flowing. When I'm out in nature and just looking straight into the horizon at a sunset, and just breathing, I feel like I'm away from my small little apartment in Berkeley or studying vigorously to survive in an ultra-competitive environment.

I'm also always trying to incorporate new methods of being still. The latest thing that I've been working on is sleeping with the glass of water instead of my phone. Waking up every day, like the first thing I do is go to my phone. But now I've got an old-school alarm clock and I take a sip of water instead of looking at my phone, or texts or emails, or you know, just stressing about my day.

That's been a very transformative practice for me and in the last year, it has made such a positive impact. I can now say that I wake up and the first thing I'm doing is not checking the phone, but being one with water. :) It's like being more connected with myself and just being a little still.

Thank you for helping me understand how nothing-ness relates to stillness today.