Sometimes the Thinnest Places

The Celts spoke of “thin places,” places like caves or wells or other special sites where the boundary between the mundane and magical was permeable. … a “place” where we can discover that there is fundamentally no separation between ourselves and others, that what we seek is always so close, always right here.

Roshi Pat Enkyo O’Hara, An Introduction to Zen (Tricycle, Spring 2009)

are where we least expect, perhaps
next to the meat counter

when your daughter is shrieking
because your son leans too close to her in the cart

and the woman in the blood-stained apron
leans across the glass, smiles, hands you

a hunk of roasted turkey breast
and says, “Here, honey, I think it will help.”

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