Stillpoint: Reflections From A Year On The Cliff is the third book of short stories from Grammy-winning producer and award-winning writer, Barrett Martin. Building on his previous books, The Singing Earth (2017) and The Way Of The Zen Cowboy (2019), Martin delivers Stillpoint, a collection of 18 short stories penned in a remote cliff house inside a wildlife refuge overlooking the Strait of Juan de Fuca, between Washington State and British Columbia. As a local who grew up here, Martin refers to this magical area as Cascadia, a wild and dramatic place with fierce storms, enchanting forests, and magical animals: bald eagles, ravens, hawks, screech owls, coyotes, raccoons, deer, bats, and the odd multicolored snake are just some of the many creatures that reside here and inspire the stories in this book. Stillpoint is also a Buddhist term for the moment between thoughts, when all mental chatter ceases and the clarity of Absolute Mind emerges from within. Drawing from his 25 years of Zen Buddhism, Martin recounts childhood memories, amusing animal stories, and environmental lessons learned from his decades of travel and ethnomusicology fieldwork with indigenous people around the world, including observations on the political and environmental turmoil that has enveloped the world.
