When you arrive early to the classroom
Sit down get settled
Turn off your cell phone put it away
Take refuge in conscious breathing:
“Breathing in, I am calm.
Breathing out, I smile.”
Look with serene appreciation
On your classmates
Including those who can’t do
Without their cell phones
You see them
They don’t see you
You smile at them
They miss your beautiful smile
You may do it
For six minutes
Or 20 seconds
It’s all good
Yes you can do this before
Each and every class
You will get enormous extra credit
Accumulating steadily
Not in the form of mere “points”
But in that unquantifiable
Sine qua non that will always be with you
Wherever you are whatever you’re doing
The extra credit
That is profound presence
––from novel-in-progress, Our Heroic and Ceaseless 24/7 Struggle against Tsuris
