Monday 24 August 2009

A pocket of meditation

Artists, Shane and Leah Odom from Maryland, have sent me this photograph of the beautiful bench Shane built at their home:



This is what Shane says about it:

"I like to build benches. There is something about providing a simple place to sit. I have built many that were movable and several that were set into the ground on posts.I have left a permanently fixed bench at all the places I have lived, even building a couple clandestinely in wooded places. I like to think of them as still out there, like little pockets of meditation I have left in the world. There is something about a bench. It provides a destination, a place to go to and...sit. This is the literally meaning of zen. Zazen. To Sit. To be in one place.

This spot needed a bench. I built it. It overlooks our home and gardens."


I love this. I'm hoping this blog will hear more from Shane and Leah in the future. He blogs here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the mention and kind words! I hope to start that Stateside bench Blog soon. I am in the midst of the Maryland Renaissance Festival, (one of those peculiarities of US folk life, a theme park oddly based on English history) and the site is rife with benches.

Sarah Salway said...

Oooo take pictures!