I thought of this guy I knew whose gratitude practice was centered on appreciating every object from the day it comes into his possession until the dystopic collapse of society. Vacations (soon nobody’s going to be going anywhere, man), new cars (what the hell, we’ll all be walking before long), guitars (how else are we going to have music without electricity)—the guy was Zen master. And now I walked in the golden autumnal light thinking he was more right than not…

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ZAZEN, Chapter 16 — “Breath of Soldiers”

The Story: It’s the very near-future, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest—or a neighborhood near you. 27-year-old Della Mylinek has suffered some kind of breakdown after...