Pulling open the door to the Gray Squirrel Coffee Co. in Carrboro, I saw a tall stranger striding toward me, so I stepped back and held the door open for him to pass. He smiled and nodded his thanks. I continued inside, where I ordered my oat macchiato and pulled up a bar stool to wait by watching through the big window as the Carrborians made their way on foot, bike, and skateboard. There were cars as well, including a bright yellow Volkswagen bug.
The sunshine was so inviting that I eventually took my beverage back outside. As I approached the door, the same guy was coming back in, and he held the door for me. He nodded again and smiled even wider, as if to say, “What goes around, comes back around!”
Only after I had settled in my new seat did I notice that my oat macchiato had been abbreviated in black marker on the side of my tiny cup as the sacred syllable, the mantra of all mantras. OM is ultimately untranslatable. But I know that one can meditate without sitting in the lotus position on a pillow. Sometimes I can fool myself into thinking that I ought to be in a hurry, and what do I miss? In this transient world of passing encounters, so much is said without a word.
Andrew Taylor-Troutman is the author of “Little Big Moments,” a collection of mini-essays about parenting, and “Tigers, Mice & Strawberries: Poems.” Both titles are available most anywhere books are sold online. Taylor-Troutman lives in Chapel Hill where he serves as pastor of Chapel in the Pines Presbyterian Church and occasionally stumbles upon the wondrous while in search of his next cup of coffee.
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