Last night, I was a few minutes into my zazen when my 19-month-old daughter walked up to me. She doesn’t usually see me when I’m meditating (I usually save it for when she’s asleep), but she didn’t find it particularly strange that I was sitting and staring at a wall. She looked at me for a moment and then sat down in my lap.

She got up after a few seconds, grabbed one of her toy cars and tried handing it to me. When I didn’t immediately take it from her, she leaned down and placed it in my hands. Apparently my mudra was sufficient for toy car storage.

Best zazen session ever.

Sometimes my teapot’s spout gets clogged with leaves, causing the tea to pour out slowly. Without fail, I find myself tipping it further in an attempt to increase the speed, but instead, tea just starts seeping out of the top, spilling onto my desk. I try to take that as a reminder to slow down… like, “Dude, slow down. 15 seconds longer for your tea ain’t gonna’ kill you.”