About Refuge In Small Things

The Author

Mike Travisano is an ordained Buddhist priest serving a community in central Pennsylvania, where he teaches mindfulness to individuals and organizations and works as an integrative group therapy facilitator for adolescents and adults. For more information, visit theartofmondaymorning.com.

The Artist

Jess Gibson is a multimedia artist focusing on how we see, experience, and communicate our environment through perspective drawings, architecture, and motion graphics. She lives and works in Oakland, California. For more information and work inquiries, please visit riseandrender.com.

The Fox

In the Zen tradition, the fox is often used as a metaphor for a trickster or an imposter. The fox represents the ways in which our own delusions can cover up the profound truth that right underneath them, we're all Buddha. The little sleeping fox on the cover was therefore chosen to depict a wish—the wish that short of attaining complete enlightenment, that maybe something in these 108 entries can at least help the fox to close their eyes and rest for a little while.