Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.
— Satchel Paige

People who are at ease with themselves are a wonderful gift to the world. They model for us with a power that words can never match.

When I was a boy, I had Satchel Paige's picture on my wall, along with about fifteen other Cleveland Indian baseball players. Satchel had a special attraction. He not only became the first African American pitcher in the American League (at the age of forty-two), he was also full of joy, wisdom, and showmanship. He just loved life, even though, especially at its beginning, it didn't offer him much.

He could pitch words as well as he could pitch a baseball. . . . Satchel always had his eye on the crowd and knew how to give them what they wanted, and sometimes what they needed as well.

In my memory of him, I realize that he always had quietness, serenity, and even a sense of slowness about him — even though he was famous for his fastball — almost as if he were always remembering something important, something he didn't want to forget. His smile took a while to complete itself, and he had an easy grace in his movements.

Is there someone in your life who is a model of serenity for you? What gives them such a calm in the storm of life? How can you cultivate that in yourself?

Today, find yourself a model of serenity and make yourself an apprentice.

David Kundtz in Quiet Mind