Kate told me to start a blog. She was the small, jittery woman who shared a room with me in Twentynine Palms, California. A simple room that mirrored itself, split in half by a window facing the mountains. We were at the Dhamma Vaddhana Vipassana Meditation Center.  

We spent ten days observing the Noble Silence as an offering of space for oneself and others. 

".. being who we are and allowing the other person to be who they are.”

The teachers invited us to speak again on the last day —  a buffer for our return to reality. My feelings spilled out & Kate listened. She made her diagnosis and prescribed treatment for my ailments.

“You don’t need Vipassana, you need to write a blog!” 

Kate was a cryptocurrency trader from Belarus. She was traveling around the United States with her boyfriend, waiting for their Green Cards to arrive, before she could divorce her surrogate husband. Without words, she demanded authority. Never missing the 4am wakeup gong to mediate. While I slept through the optional  sittings, she sat in the hall and worked. Nine hours a day, everyday. Her story only added to the natural admiration i'd developed.

I completed the Vipassana retreat in March. While it presented a viable framework, I lack the tools to build it up. It took me two months but I’m ready to take my medicine.  

I assert now as I did when the suggestion was made that I have nothing interesting to say. My prose is cringey, mundane & self-concerned.  But I believe Kate when she says I need to start a blog.