布拉格的一間超市，教會我找回自己的節奏

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The Longing Beneath the Longing

I'm still traveling as I write this — somewhere between Prague and home.

This trip has given me more than I expected. Not in the way trips usually do, through adventures or beautiful sights, but through something quieter. Something that asked me to stop and look inward.

An Unexpected Feeling in Prague

Yesterday, while traveling with my daughter in Prague, I felt a little sad.

We had gone to a supermarket together, looking for local snacks to bring home. On the way back, I wanted to wander a little longer. There was a McDonald's somewhere nearby, and I was curious to see what was different in the Czech Republic.

My daughter told me she was going back to the hotel.

I like to linger. To wander without knowing exactly what I'll find. She had already found enough for the day.

That evening, I sat with a quiet feeling of loss.

At first, I thought it was because we wanted different things. But the next morning, before sunrise, after sitting in meditation in my hotel room, I realized something much deeper.

I wasn't really looking for McDonald's.

I was longing for someone to share my rhythm.

The Poem That Found Me

After I sat, a line from the Chinese poet Tao Yuanming gently came to mind.

採菊東籬下，悠然見南山。

Picking chrysanthemums by the eastern fence, I leisurely catch sight of the southern mountain.

I have loved this poem for years. Yet that morning, I heard it differently.

The poem isn't really about finding the mountain.

The mountain was always there.

It appeared because he wasn't hurrying toward something else.

Then another lyric surfaced, one I've also loved for a long time:

笑著走著，忽然和你愛的撞上了。

Walking, smiling, and suddenly meeting what you love.

And I understood, very gently, why those words had come to me.

My deepest longing wasn't for everyone to walk at my pace.

It was not to lose my own.

What I Had Forgotten

What touched me most wasn't solving the loneliness.

It was discovering something I hadn't been able to hear in the busyness of everyday life.

I had forgotten to honor my own rhythm.

Somehow, without realizing it, I had quietly hoped that peace would come from walking in step with someone else. Instead, I discovered something much gentler.

Peace came from recognizing my own pace… and allowing it to belong.

Once I saw that, nothing needed to change.

Not my daughter. Not our plans. Not the rest of our trip.

Only my relationship with my own rhythm.

The Map

I often think of life a little like hiking with a map.

The map matters. It helps us know our direction. But once we've looked at it, we put it back in our pocket. Then we notice the trees. We hear the birds. We feel the breeze. When we come to a fork in the trail, we take the map out again. Then we put it away.

The map is important.

It just isn't where life happens.

I wonder if our own rhythm is a little like that. It quietly guides us. But we can only hear it when we aren't constantly rushing toward the next destination.

What Changed After the Sit

That morning after the sit felt completely different.

I noticed my rhythm. I noticed hers. Neither needed to become the other.

I simply saw where a little guidance might help, and where space was the kinder gift. And something inside me relaxed.

I found myself genuinely excited — not to walk at the same pace, but to discover how we could both grow through this journey. To stay connected through love, while also giving each other room.

There was an unexpected sense of freedom in that.

Perhaps because, in the end, that was what I had been longing to offer myself all along.

Not someone who always walks beside me.

But the freedom to walk in my own natural rhythm, with kindness, curiosity, and an open heart.

And from that place, connection becomes something we offer each other. Not something we ask the other person to carry.

A Gentle Reflection

Where in your life have you been waiting for someone else's rhythm to feel like home?

And what might it feel like to gently return to your own?

Maybe it's the way you move through your mornings — already adjusting your pace before the day has even begun.

Maybe it's the way you make decisions — pausing to check what someone else might think before you've even heard your own answer.

Maybe it's something quieter than that. A longing you've carried for a long time, that you haven't quite been able to name.

This is an invitation to sit with it for just a moment.

You don't have to solve it.

Just notice whether, somewhere underneath the busyness, your own rhythm is still there — waiting, gently, to be heard.

And if you'd like to practice together, you're warmly invited to join our weekly classes:

👉 zitamae.com/offerings

May we each find, in our own quiet rhythm, the mountain that was always there.

With warmth and always love, Caroline 🌿

Peace and always love

布拉格的一間超市，教會我找回自己的節奏

渴望背後的渴望

我寫這篇文章的時候，還在旅途中——在布拉格和回家的路上之間。

這趟旅行給了我比預期更多的東西。不是那種旅行通常帶來的方式，透過冒險或美麗的風景，而是透過某種更安靜的東西。某種邀請我停下來、往內看的東西。

旅途中的一份失落

昨天，我和女兒在布拉格旅行，我感到有點難過。

我們一起去了一間超市，找一些當地的零食帶回家。回去的路上，我想再多走一會兒。附近有一間麥當勞，我很好奇捷克的麥當勞和別的地方有什麼不同。

我女兒告訴我，她要先回飯店了。

我喜歡到處晃。在不知道會發現什麼的情況下慢慢走。她那天已經找到足夠的東西了。

那個晚上，我帶著一種輕輕的失落感坐著。

一開始，我以為是因為我們想要的東西不同。但第二天早上，在日出之前，在飯店房間裡靜坐之後，我意識到一件深得多的事。

我不是真的在找麥當勞。

我渴望的，是有人可以分享我的節奏。

找到我的那首詩

靜坐之後，陶淵明的一句詩輕輕浮現心頭。

採菊東籬下，悠然見南山。

我喜歡這首詩很多年了。但那個早上，我聽到了不同的東西。

這首詩不是關於找到那座山。

那座山一直都在。

它出現，是因為他沒有急著去找別的東西。

然後另一句歌詞也浮現了，一句我也喜歡很久的話：

笑著走著，忽然和你愛的撞上了。

我非常溫柔地明白了，為什麼這些話來到我這裡。

我最深的渴望，不是讓每個人都跟我走一樣的步伐。

而是不要失去我自己的。

我忘記的事

最觸動我的，不是解決了那份孤獨。

而是發現了一件在日常生活的忙碌裡，我一直沒辦法聽見的事。

我忘記了去尊重自己的節奏。

不知道從什麼時候開始，我悄悄希望，平靜會從跟上別人的步伐裡來。但我發現了一件溫柔得多的事。

平靜，來自認出自己的節奏……然後讓它屬於自己。

一旦我看見了這個，什麼都不需要改變。

不是我女兒。不是我們的計劃。不是旅程的其餘部分。

只是我和自己節奏的關係。

地圖

我常常把生命想成拿著地圖去爬山。

地圖很重要。它幫助我們知道方向。但當我們看完地圖，我們把它放回口袋裡。然後我們注意到樹木。我們聽見鳥叫聲。我們感受到微風。當我們來到一個岔路，我們再把地圖拿出來看。然後我們把它放回去。

地圖很重要。

只是，生命不發生在地圖裡。

我在想，我們自己的節奏也許有點像這樣。它悄悄地引導我們。但只有在我們不是一直急著趕向下一個目的地的時候，我們才能聽見它。

靜坐之後，一切不同了

那個早上靜坐之後，感覺完全不同了。

我注意到我的節奏。我注意到她的節奏。兩個都不需要變成對方的樣子。

我只是看見，在哪些地方一點引導也許有幫助，在哪些地方給空間才是更溫柔的禮物。然後我內心的某個部分放鬆了。

我發現自己真的很期待——不是走在同一個步伐裡，而是發現我們可以怎麼透過這趟旅程一起成長。在愛裡保持連結，同時也給彼此空間。

那裡面有一種意外的自由感。

也許因為，說到最後，那才是我一直渴望給自己的東西。

不是一個永遠走在我旁邊的人。

而是以自己自然的節奏行走的自由，帶著善意、好奇，和一顆開放的心。

從那個地方，連結變成了我們給彼此的東西。不是我們要求對方去承擔的東西。

一個溫柔的提問

你在生命的哪個地方，一直在等待別人的節奏變成你的家？

回到自己的節奏，會是什麼感覺？

也許是你開始早晨的方式——在這一天還沒真正開始之前，就已經在調整自己的步伐去配合別人了。

也許是你做決定的方式——在你聽見自己的答案之前，就先停下來想別人會怎麼想。

也許是比這更安靜的東西。一個你帶了很久、還沒辦法完全說出口的渴望。

這是一個邀請，就坐在這裡一會兒。

你不需要解決它。

只是注意看看，在所有的忙碌之下，你自己的節奏是不是還在——安靜地，溫柔地，等著被聽見。

如果你想一起練習，我在這裡等你。🌿

👉 zitamae.com/offerings

願我們都能在自己的節奏裡， 找到那座一直都在的南山。

滿懷祝福與溫暖，
Caroline

Peace and always love