A Place of Silent, Intense Peace

Yesterday I went into a local Repartee Gallery to drop off a picture to get framed. The contrast was amazing: outside was a busy parking lot with talkative groups headed into the surrounding restaurants; inside was a refuge where art students were silently focused on their drawings. It startled me to find about 8 people in there, sitting in various positions around the room, so I stopped for a second at the threshold and some of them glanced up at me. Down to my left was someone sitting on the floor rather than in a chair; it was Nicole, my neighbor. We said "hi," and she pointed out her mother, another one of my long-time neighbors. They were all sitting quietly, each person doing a pencil drawing of a green pepper. The atmosphere was remarkable: it was a large room with fine art filling the walls, where a group of people all sat in silence, every one intensely focused on their creations.

It reminded me of a temple, one where every attendee was applying their full power of concentration, working independently but on much the same task. The word "reverent" even came to mind.

After respecfully breaking their silence and finishing my business, I walked out... but I paused outside the door, where there was a small fountain in the shape of a man cradling a huge fish in both hands and pouring water out its mouth. I savored that grand feeling of peace for another few seconds before continuing the rest of my chores.