Today, June 21, is the longest day of the year. And it’s a day that I particularly love, particularly in Paris. The city is at its best this time of year, tree-lined boulevards and parks flourishing, café terraces full. Which doesn’t mean that all is « well » for everyone: Refugees and the homeless also wander the city, air pollution is suffocating sometimes… The sun rises early and sets late today for all of us, without exception.

For me, circumstances require that I post something here earlier than usual. If I don’t do it now, I won’t be able to come back to it until mid-afternoon at best. First, I’ll take the cat to the veterinarian. Then must head to meetings, followed by a lunch. All of it, I intend to do with care, with sincerity, remembering just now what Suzuki Roshi writes, that « …it is enough if you do one thing with sincerity, » because, he notes, it is in this « limited activity » of our daily lives that we can « find out the true meaning » of ourself. Like William Blake, Suzuki, too, says, « If you pick up even a small stone, you have the whole universe. »

It’ all here, all now. It’s all you. You are the whole story and all of its parts.