Notes from the Transition

When I found Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) at Plum Village in southern France just over 20 years ago, I was on a bit of a pilgrimage. I didn't know exactly what I was seeking, but I had left my dot-com job in New York, shipped my motorcycle to London, and began riding rather aimlessly around Europe. I had just found out that someone I loved had been killed, and was having trouble making sense of the world. So a spiritual journey through Europe in the dead of winter seemed like a logical thing to do. And something must have guided me to type "meditation center southern France" into the computer at the internet cafe in Bourdeaux, and a picture of Thay's face popped up, with his gentle smile, and pictures of blossoming plum trees in a place called 'Plum Village'. So I headed that way, and found, when I arrived, a sweet, beautiful community of people living lives of mindfulness. And by that, I soon discovered, they did not mean that their minds were full. On the contrary...