the little monk

from The Brothers Karamazov

by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

“This is what I think of you, you will go forth from these walls, but you will live like a monk in the world. You will have many enemies, but even your foes will love you. Life will bring you many misfortunes, but you will find your happiness in them, and will bless life and will make others bless it - which is what matters most. Well, that is your character.”

the little monk studies the small, quiet things in the world and wonders why so few people see or hear them

at night, the little monk drifts off to sleep and becomes a blue whale, the thump of his giant fluke in the deep ocean moving him along, the songs of other blue whales from far away waters touching his big heart

sometimes the little monk’s body whipped by the wind blowing off the icy waters until he becomes a part of the sand, salt and sea

- “the little monk,” Trevor Scott Barton, 2020