In this episode of the Chillness Room, I read a short Zen story called The Long Road from my book Little Zen Stories: Quiet Teachings for Ordinary Days

It’s a simple story about a student who keeps asking how far it is to town—and keeps hearing the same answer: “Just a couple of miles.” What he doesn’t know is that the journey will take days. His teacher understands something important: if we see the full magnitude of a path at the beginning, we may never start.

From there, we explore what this means for real life.

When you’re feeling powerless, overwhelmed, or stuck, trying to leap from despair to “everything is perfect” rarely works. The nervous system doesn’t move that way. Instead, progress comes in small distances we can actually bear.

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