Art of Being Here

Zen Master Dogen (Japan: 1200 – 1253) once offered a simple image: a fish doesn't wait to swim until it has mapped the whole ocean. It moves now, in the water it's already in, and the ocean opens around it as it goes.

We often live as if we need the whole picture before we can step into our own lives. We rehearse the future, study the past, wait to feel ready, while the day in front of us goes unattended.

But the fish never leaves the water. Wherever it turns, the water is there to meet it. The whole ocean is fully present in the small stretch it's swimming through right now.

I've noticed this in my own work. A painting comes alive the moment I stop trying to see the finished image and simply attend to the mark in front of me. The whole piece is already there, in a single brushstroke.

Consider that you don't need to search for your element; you are already swimming in it.