NIGHT ONE
Root
We began by asking why our journey opened with the Daughter of the Mountain.
We learned her name before assigning her a meaning.
We listened to her story before turning it into our own.
We looked carefully at her form before deciding what every detail must represent.
Then, with care, we allowed the mountain held within her name to open one word for us:
ROOT
Not as a translation of Shailaputri's name.
As a way of asking where we stand before the journey moves.
Before we decide where to go, we first have to know where we are standing.
The journey can move now—not because every question has been answered, but because we have arrived.
Begin by arriving.
Night One · Shailaputri
The journey continues.