When the Dominguez-Escalante Expedition,
seeking to discover
a route from Santa Fe to California,
couldn’t find a way
to cross an unnamed river,
they left a vast expanse
empty
at the center
of their map.
Our lives
are like that,
we know so much,
have so much information
words describe so much,
and yet,
at the center of our lives,
there is a great mystery,
emptiness
silence
immeasurable space.
Trout Black, a Zen Buddhist teacher, lives in Northern California except when he’s in his beloved Southern Utah, loves granite and redrock, rivers and slot canyons, Ravens and Lizards, Escalante and Hells Backbone Grill, and his wife Silvia, their two kids, and their three grandkids.
