The 21-DAY Challenge BEGINS

Hi. I'm back.

I'm trying an experiment -- both in posting and in trying this out...DAY ONE (from yesterday.)

A few days ago I decided to take on the meditation challenge WITH MY family, including our two young girls Willoree (8) and Phoebe (4). They’re into it; we’ve dabbled, and I have done enough meditation to know that it’s in my blood and spirit for the haul, so without thinking much more about it, we sat down to join Oprah and Deepk on their 21-Day Meditation experience about the Energy of Attraction.

I like a challenge…it keeps me humble and open to life.

The girls and I sat in front of our wood stove snuggled close, holding hands; husband Ben in the background probably sleeping on the sofa. Eventually Phoebe gets up to snuggle with Papa. Willoree’s sitting like she’s been taught in Montessori school: hands on her lap, back straight, sitting criss cross applesauce, feeling her love. A few minutes later Phoebe is back on my lap in a strange combination of lying down and sitting up. My posture’s suffering: the angle I must assume to accommodate Willoree’s slipping head, who’s scrapped the “perfect posture” for the pull of sweet, warm gravity, is now on my lap and Phoebe is trying to lay on my lap without bothering her sister. This is not what they teach in meditation class. I go with it. Oprah talks a bunch about alignment and my heart feels full, happy, sweetened by this funny, natural moment in life — and then the cat begins to puke on the yoga mat where we’re all sitting. She’s a long-haired Maine Coon kind of cat who leaves hairballs all over the place. She moves to the fireplace and pukes on the hearth. “Shit”, Ben says, and comes over with some paper towels to wipe it up. I say to myself: Eecha Shakti Namah, about three times, and I am somehow still smiling on the inside.

Maybe I’m just happy that I’m so warm, my girls are falling asleep in the afterglow of our new bedtime routine, and I am holding their hands and tearing up and laughing in the inside at the same time at the strange wonder of it all ... and my back is somehow hanging in there.