There is a saying I used to love: ‘give me a place to stand and I will move the world.’ That was archimedes talking about the fulcrum. I went off on the adventure of life searching for the solid ground, someone or something that will hold me in the right place, the right mindset, right attitude, right feeling, so that I can accomplish what I need to do. But I think I had it backwards. Anywhere I stand, if I allow myself to stay there and not move and always return to it, return to that steady surrender to my exhaling, again and again, then the world around me changes and yet I do not, and the world turns, looks at me in astonishment: will you not move? How will you not change your hair and voice your online status your salary your friends your clothes your motives your desires?

But how will it change the way I feel about myself? Yes when I am walking in the town alone and simply walking without purpose, my life is not any more interesting than anyone else. Or when I am lying in my bed at night alone I am not more important than anyone else. But I feel I am not moving in any way I don’t want to or is unnecessary, and this feels like a simple good thing that is mine forever and I have come back here time after time and I am starting to understand, I am a place in the world, I am a place to stand and I will not move.

I refused to move, and what happened next is what can only happen next: the world has moved